Felix Gall ahead of the Tour France: First a doubter, then a breakthrough starter - and now an established top rider?
Daniel Brickwedde
· 12.06.2024
It's all still new for Felix Gall. All the attention surrounding him. He has emphasised this several times in recent months. After all, he didn't necessarily expect this development - at least not at the turbo speed at which his career has taken on a new narrative. Twelve months ago, even his start in the Tour de France was still uncertain, at best as a helper; one year later, he is the undisputed captain of his team Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale. In between: His first professional victory at the Tour de Suisse 2023, the one-day victory on the queen stage of the Tour de France in Courchevel and eighth place in the final classification of the Tour of France. Two months that turned Gall's life upside down.
At the end of the year, journalists also voted him Austria's Sportsman of the Year, a remarkable achievement for a professional cyclist. The last time Georg Totschnig achieved this was in 2005, when he suddenly emerged from the masses of the peloton to become one of the country's best-known athletes. "It took me some time to really realise what had happened. During the season, I sometimes had real problems realising everything and categorising my performances correctly," Gall told the Courier from Austria. He therefore deliberately took a step back in December. Time to pause and take stock.
What will change for Felix Gall this season
A breakthrough, when everything suddenly falls into place, sometimes catches an athlete unawares. It just happens. Confirming this performance is then the supposedly more difficult task that every up-and-comer faces. From then on, performances are associated with a different set of expectations - from the team, but also from the public. Some cope better with this, others find it more difficult. "Going into the Tour de France as the leader is a new responsibility for me. But I know what I have to do and how I have to prepare," says Gall during a press conference at the beginning of June, just a few days before the start of the Tour de Suisse, the final endurance test before the Tour de France.
Of course, the new role brings with it a certain amount of pressure. For Gall, however, the satisfaction outweighs this: He has now arrived where he always wanted to be - with all the privileges that come with being a top driver. For example, when planning the season. Not unimportant for Gall. "It was clear in the winter that the Tour was the big goal. That's the difference to last year, that you now have a certain amount of peace and quiet. A year ago, the Tour wasn't even on my programme until April," says the 26-year-old.
However, the season so far has been mediocre: at the Tour of Andalusia and the Tour of the Basque Country, Gall was unable to perform as hoped due to crashes, but at Paris-Nice he still finished ninth in the final standings - a decisive proof of his performance for his own mind. "It was important for me to be able to confirm something from last year. Because if I hadn't had a good race or result so far in the season, it would have been difficult," says the Austrian.
The Tour de Suisse 2023 has "opened Felix Gall's eyes"
He recently completed an altitude training camp in the Sierra Nevada, his performance figures are good and his current weight of under 65 kilograms is better than last year. The final race intensity before the Tour of France will now come at the Tour de Suisse, where his ascent began last year. Back then, Gall took his first professional victory on stage 4, slipped into the leader's jersey for a day and battled for a long time for overall victory. "That really opened my eyes to what is possible. It was also the first time that I'd done a very good altitude training camp and realised how effective it is for me," he says.
Gall's great talent was recognised early on. In 2015, he won the Junior World Championships and subsequently joined the Sunweb (now DSM) development team. He also spent his first two professional years there. However, his potential never materialised as hoped in the Dutch team - partly due to health setbacks. "Some teams don't suit the rider - or the rider doesn't suit the team. We had different views on where the journey was going," Gall told TOUR last year.
Now he adds in the press conference: "I've always aspired to be at the front. That hasn't been the case in recent years. You start to have doubts and ask yourself the question: to what extent does it still make sense to ride around somewhere and have the feeling that you can't really do anything?" In 2023, he switched to the French team AG2R, which partnered with Decathlon this season. In the new environment, "the joy has returned", says Gall. He had "hoped for the leap in performance that has now occurred, but did not expect it in this form."
What makes him feel good about his new team? "It's the trust and the freedom I have," says Gall, "of course you need guidelines and instructions, that's what the coach is there for. But I know my body very well. It's important that the coach also listens to me and that the athlete feels comfortable."
Felix Gall has worked intensively on his time trial skills
After the Tour de Suisse, Gall travelled with his coach and the team to Isola 2000, a winter sports region in the north of France, where the 19th stage of the Tour de France ends. A few more climbs and descents will be inspected there "so that I really feel comfortable there", as Gall says.
Beforehand, he had already watched sections of the 9th stage over gravel passages to Troyes as well as the two time trial sections. Because fighting against the clock has not been one of his strengths so far - the 59 time trial kilometres in this year's route plan, significantly more than in previous years, are not to his advantage. So the team worked intensively on Gall's time trial skills and equipment. "I don't want to say that I've become a specialist, but we've worked on the position. That was the biggest point for me where I had problems - transferring my performance from the road bike to the time trial bike," says Gall.
At the Tour de France, he is now competing with the expectations from the previous year, which he is aware of: "It's on paper and you compare yourself with it. You know: I've done that before," says Gall. He therefore does not want to set a specific target. However, the Austrian says he would immediately accept the prospect of another stage win plus a top ten finish. "But I also know how fragile the whole thing is. I didn't crash last year and I wasn't ill," says Gall. Meanwhile, there was still room for improvement in the third week last year, he adds.
However, the focus for the Tour de France is clear: the overall standings. Would you swap a top ten place for the mountains jersey? Gall has a clear answer to that: "No". He wants to further establish himself as a classification rider. And confirm his new status.
