Gall plans 2025 tour

“Setback certainly makes me even stronger!”

Felix Gall dropped back to 14th place in the Alps.(Bild: REUTERS)

The Tour de France was disappointing for Austria's cycling star Felix Gall. After a strong performance in 2023 with victory on the queen stage, the East Tyrolean only finished in 14th place. In an interview with the "Krone" newspaper, the climber was convinced that his current experiences will make him better.

One year after winning the queen stage, cycling star Felix Gall returned empty-handed from the Tour de France on Monday. After a collapse in the Alps, the Decathlon AG2R captain missed his ambitious goals with 14th place: "Apart from the last three days, I'm very satisfied. A lot of things worked well until the last week. Unfortunately, I ran out of juice then because I was a bit under the weather."

I'm now going to put the bike away for a few days, sleep in and eat whatever I feel like. Maybe I'll even go for a round of golf.

Radstar Felix Gall

The 26-year-old from Nußdorf-Debant now wants to recharge his batteries in order to be fit for the rest of the season: "I'm going to put the bike away for a few days, sleep in and eat whatever I feel like."

Catfish is the only criterium
Felix will only make an exception on Wednesday for the Wels city center criterium to show himself to the Austrian cycling fans: "It's a great event that I'm looking forward to taking part in."

After the Tour is before the Tour. Even after the current disappointment, Felix wants to be back at the start as captain at the Grand Depart 2025: "The Tour is still my big goal. There's no reason to change that now. The team is fully behind me."

He is a youngster with talent, there are many things to analyze.

Teamchef Vincent Lavenu über Felix Gall

In an interview with the sports newspaper L'Equipe, team boss Vincent Lavenu expressed his confidence in Gall: "He is a youngster with talent, there are many things to analyze."

Over the next few weeks, Austria's athlete of the year will work through the Tour of France with his coaches and support staff. The slump should not have been in vain: "The setback certainly makes me stronger. You learn the most from mistakes." 

The hard work in the wind tunnel has not yet paid off in the time trial.(Bild: Birbaumer Christof)

Time trial as a construction site
A big issue is the performance in the first time trial (50th place), in which Gall was unable to convert his performance: "It's still the same problem as in previous years. I thought I had it under control. But it's still a construction site. It can't be that I lose three minutes or more in every time trial, we have to get that under control."

New mental strength
However, the East Tyrolean also recognized great progress in the three Tour weeks, which makes him optimistic for the future: "Mentally, I have dealt with my task much better. Although the pressure was much greater this year as captain."