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Victor Lafay - the next super puncheur

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tobydawq

tobydawq

Nov 16, 2013
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The Tour being the Tour, I don't think the events of the last couple of days can be ignored, even if the forum is not that trigger happy in creating new threads.

Because France has gotten a new star. It may be premature to say superstar, and he is 27 years old, so he may never get there, but man has he set the Earth on fire these first two days. It may be so that positioning was very important on the Pike Bidea, but still, being the only rider with Pogi and Jonas is legendary stuff. And then to cap it off with such a gutsy win in San Sebastián. Wow. I will never forget that weekend from him. What a swashbuckling way to finally break the Cofidis curse.

He rose to prominence with his Giro stage win from 2021, but that was from a very weak break and didn't really say that much about his top level. One thing that did, however, was his ride on stage 4 of Tirreno-Adriatico last year. I just rewatched a highlights package from that day, and not only does he close Remco when he attacks a couple kilometres out, he is also the one to make the final attack inside the final kilometre where Pogi is the only one who can follow him - in the end, Vingegaard also managed to outsprint him, but he still ended up sharing a top 4 with Pogacar, Vingegaard and Remco, which is extraordinary in itself.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0vCoGhCu1A&ab_channel=GCNRacing


Then he had a lot of health problems, and last year's Tour was horrible. He was probably the weakest rider in the race (or at least battling with Hirschi and Turgis for that honour) and abandoned half-way through. This year has been decent with some good performances (4th in Ardèche behind Alaphilippe, Gaudu, Skjelmose and in front of Grégoire, Gall, Rota, G Martin, Costa (how good does that win look by Julian now, by the way, how could he pull that off and then suck for three months?), 6th in Flèche Wallonne and a victory in Classic Grand Besancon where he beat Lenny Martinez on an uphill finish) but there has also been a lot of anonymous performances, so I don't think anybody could have foreseen what would transpire these first two days.

Where does he go from here? Stage hunter? Classics rider? WCRR contender? I don't think GC rider is realistic, he seems too big for that. And way too fluctuating in his performance.
 
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S

Skijumper Roglic fan

Aug 28, 2021
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Lafay seems strong as Ben Healy. They also look like twin brothers.

Good thing for me is that now I easier manage to separate Lafay and Rochas. Now Lafay is the stronger of them.

Just like with Vlasov and Sivakov. For some time, both were equally strong. Then Vlasov became the stronger of the two, and I managed to separate them easier.

Just like Laporte, Lafay could even improve if he left Cofidis. But he can win at Cofidis too.

Good thing for French cycling. You underestimate Lafay easily, because of his look, his nationality and his team. When his new level is what he showed yesterday, then he is ready for new nice victories, in world class races.

Now with a TdF stage won, he already has become a „living legend“. Having won a TdF stage will change his life dramatically, to the better.
 
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Red Rick

Red Rick

Feb 20, 2012
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tobydawq said:
The Tour being the Tour, I don't think the events of the last couple of days can be ignored, even if the forum is not that trigger happy in creating new threads.

Because France has gotten a new star. It may be premature to say superstar, and he is 27 years old, so he may never get there, but man has he set the Earth on fire these first two days. It may be so that positioning was very important on the Pike Bidea, but still, being the only rider with Pogi and Jonas is legendary stuff. And then to cap it off with such a gutsy win in San Sebastián. Wow. I will never forget that weekend from him. What a swashbuckling way to finally break the Cofidis curse.

He rose to prominence with his Giro stage win from 2021, but that was from a very weak break and didn't really say that much about his top level. One thing that did, however, was his ride on stage 4 of Tirreno-Adriatico last year. I just rewatched a highlights package from that day, and not only does he close Remco when he attacks a couple kilometres out, he is also the one to make the final attack inside the final kilometre where Pogi is the only one who can follow him - in the end, Vingegaard also managed to outsprint him, but he still ended up sharing a top 4 with Pogacar, Vingegaard and Remco, which is extraordinary in itself.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0vCoGhCu1A&ab_channel=GCNRacing


Then he had a lot of health problems, and last year's Tour was horrible. He was probably the weakest rider in the race (or at least battling with Hirschi and Turgis for that honour) and abandoned half-way through. This year has been decent with some good performances (4th in Ardèche behind Alaphilippe, Gaudu, Skjelmose and in front of Grégoire, Gall, Rota, G Martin, Costa (how good does that win look by Julian now, by the way, how could he pull that off and then suck for three months?), 6th in Flèche Wallonne and a victory in Classic Grand Besancon where he beat Lenny Martinez on an uphill finish) but there has also been a lot of anonymous performances, so I don't think anybody could have foreseen what would transpire these first two days.

Where does he go from here? Stage hunter? Classics rider? WCRR contender? I don't think GC rider is realistic, he seems too big for that. And way too fluctuating in his performance.
Click to expand...
PCS has him roughly at the same height/weight as Roglic. His arms are skeletal.

I wonder how good he is in harder races with more fatigue, so far I think his best results have beem pretty easy stages into a fresh 6-12 minute climb, though he has some good results on bigger climbs as well.

He has never climbed with the absolute best on 6 minute climbs before either though, so Im curious what he does the rest of the Tour
 
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tobydawq

tobydawq

Nov 16, 2013
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Red Rick said:
PCS has him roughly at the same height/weight as Roglic. His arms are skeletal.

I wonder how good he is in harder races with more fatigue, so far I think his best results have beem pretty easy stages into a fresh 6-12 minute climb, though he has some good results on bigger climbs as well.

He has never climbed with the absolute best on 6 minute climbs before either though, so Im curious what he does the rest of the Tour
Click to expand...
The Tirreno stage I mentioned fits right in there.
 
F

frisenfruitig

Jul 28, 2010
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Even more than his victory yesterday I thought he was very impressive the first stage. Being able to stick with Pogacar and Vingegaard and even attacking a couple of times is something only few riders are capable of. Not sure what else we can expect from this guy but I'm curious.
 
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saunaking

Jul 22, 2010
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tobydawq said:
The Tour being the Tour, I don't think the events of the last couple of days can be ignored, even if the forum is not that trigger happy in creating new threads.

........

Where does he go from here? Stage hunter? Classics rider? WCRR contender? I don't think GC rider is realistic, he seems too big for that. And way too fluctuating in his performance.
Click to expand...
I love the enthusiasm of this post and will be supporting Lafay accordingly!!
 
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SafeBet

SafeBet

Sep 2, 2011
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Logic-is-your-friend said:
I sure hope so for his sake, but we all pretty much thought the same about Cosnefroy in 2020. No wins so far this year. Only one win in 2022 and three wins in 2021.
Click to expand...
The odd thing with Cosnefroy is the complete lack of results in WT stage races. And I'm not talking about GCs obviously. He has like 2 career top10s in WT stages... This is his 5th Tour and he has yet to finish top10 in a stage.
That's an area where we know Lafay is pretty effective at least.

That said, I don't think Lafay will become a prolific winner, you need to be the absolute best puncher in the world to win a lot. But if he goes to the right team I could see him become more of a regular presence in the Ardennes and explosive hilly races in general.
 
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armchairclimber

armchairclimber

Jul 16, 2011
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Darn, I should have started this thread myself. As I have said elsewhere, it was stage 4 of the 2019 Tour de Yorkshire when he came onto the radar in my household .... largely through my wife taking a photo of him at the Piece Hall signing in, where he looked about 15. He went out in the break that day, on a stage that was dubbed "the Yorkshire Terrier" because of the relentlessly difficult terrain. He only finished about 54th (GVA pipped Lawless and Dunbar), but he impressed me and I've followed him since. I've had him in my CQ teams in previous years ... but not this one (doh!!).
He has always had the talent for eyecatching stage wins, but he does seem to have come of age this year, adding some strength and consistency. He still looks like a teenager and seems to be even nicer than Powless. I'm so glad that he has had a life changing moment. I can see his triumphant finish line photos being posters an many a french bedroom wall (if young folk still do that kind of thing). Maybe he'll have to settle for being mobile phone wllpaper.
 
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Cookster15

Cookster15

May 14, 2011
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Thanks for raising this. I was conscious of Lafay mentioned recently but didn’t know much about him - now I do.

But this comment also caught my eye:

even if the forum is not that trigger happy in creating new threads.
Click to expand...
Why is this? In years gone past people used to get upset for threads being created in the forum unnecessarily. Now we have gone to the other extreme? Free expression of thought should always be encouraged within the rules.
 
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