Victor Vercouillie on the life of a breakaway specialist - 'If I don't try, I have nothing anyway'

Victor Vercouillie (Flanders-Baloise) is not Mathieu van der Poel, and he knows it. The 23-year-old Kortrijk-born rider made his peace with that reality and built something from it that suits who he is as a rider instead - becoming a breakaway specialist. 

"I chose something I think I can do well, riding at a good pace for a long time," Vercouillie told Domestique. "People loved it, and that's making a name. That's pretty cool." 

Speaking on Friday, just two days before Paris-Roubaix, the 23-year-old Belgian sits only 30 kilometres from the famous Roubaix velodrome. His hometown of Kortrijk places him right in the heart of cycling’s spring classics country, with Oudenaarde and the Hell of the North within easy riding distance. For a rider who thrives at the front of the race, that proximity is more than convenient; it’s part of who he is.

"It's a perfect region for cycling," he said. "I can go everywhere where the big races are. Everything is really close." For a rider who spends most of his time at the front of races, that's not nothing."

Vercouillie came through the club scene with Onderons Parike from 2018, got a stagiaire deal with Black Spoke in August 2023, and by September had signed with Team Flanders Baloise for what became his first full professional season in 2024. 

It wasn't the most glamorous route into the professional ranks, but he's not complaining. "I wasn't good enough to go to a WorldTour team," he said, "but Flanders gave me the chance to step up, and it's based in my hometown, so it was perfect."

At Etoile de Bessèges in February, his third race of the season, he drove a move on the opening stage to within 200 metres of the finish before going completely empty. Tom Crabbe, his teammate, came through and won the stage, the team's first victory in two years. 

"I was really tired and empty, but I didn't get the time to be disappointed," he said. "I was exploding, and then twenty seconds later, I heard in my earpiece that Tom had won. It was really nice."

Vercouillie had displayed these performances before, especially in 2025. In the Tour of Britain, he made it into the breakaway for three out of the six stages, leaving with the polka dot jersey as a consequence.

At the Tour of Denmark, the Belgian got himself into a move on the opening stage, an island finish with big crosswinds and a steep climb, which they went up three times. With a kilometre to go, he had a crack at it. 

Pedersen had a teammate in the move, the line came 200 metres too late, and he finished in the top ten. 

"When they are looking at each other a little bit, and I have 100 metres, I'm gone," he said. "If I don't try, I finish fourth or fifth and have nothing anyway. That's the reason I try to break away so much, for moments like that."

Sunday will be Vercouillie's second Paris-Roubaix. The first time, two years ago, he finished outside the time limit, 30 minutes down, alone on the road for the last 30 kilometres with empty bottles. He'd been averaging 41 kilometres an hour over a race that would prove to be the fastest in history, with winner Van der Poel averaging 47.8km/h.

Somewhere along the way, the bottles ran dry. He stopped on the roadside where a group of fans had water and Coke, spent five or six minutes filling up, and then carried on to the velodrome, "That's the charm of the race," he said. "Everyone can finish as long as they're on the bike. Just to finish on the velodrome is a dream for a lot of riders."

He thinks Roubaix suits him better than Flanders, which makes sense. Flanders is explosive efforts on steep climbs, Roubaix is a sustained high tempo for six hours, and one of those plays to what he's good at. 

Getting into the breakaway is harder than it used to be, though. The big teams send riders up the road now to set things up for their leaders, and the fight for places in the move has changed. At the Tour of Flanders last weekend, Vercouillie tried four or five times before it finally clicked, in a narrow section of the city where a small gap opened and they took 15 seconds before anyone could close it. 

The crowds were calling his name on the roadside, a surreal moment, that he still can't quite process. 

"It was the first time. It was so spectacular how many people were cheering," he said. "I still don't understand it. Seven hours of pain, but it was really worth it." 

He'll go through the same process on Sunday on the cobbles of Northern France, and he hopes that he will be able to make the all-important Paris-Roubaix breakaway. 

"It's not guaranteed that I'm in the breakaway," he said, "but I hope I can be in it again. And then we'll see how far it goes."

There's a broader reason this spring matters beyond what happens on Sunday. Team Flanders Baloise's government sponsor has pulled out and the team's future beyond this season is unresolved. 

Vercouillie is at pains to point out it's not as simple as the team folding. "The team doesn't stop normally, it's just the sponsor that stops," he said. "If they find another one, the team will be in the peloton." 

But his own contract runs out at the end of the year with nothing lined up. Some teams were sniffing around last year, and nothing came of it. "After this season, I don't have a contract, so I'm trying to fix one," he said.

He knows what he's selling. "I hope there's a team that wants someone to ride on the front and control the race. I think that's the job that suits me best," he said. 

There'd still be days to go for himself, he reckons, even in a more domestic role. But what's really underneath all of it is simpler than contracts and team budgets. 

"That's the reason everyone starts racing, I think, to win on the professional level. I hope I can win. Just one," said Vercouillie. "And if you can say later to friends, or to your kids, that you raced professionally and won, yeah, that's one of the most beautiful things."