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Campenaerts epilates nose hair for marginal gains at the Vuelta

Victor Campenaerts heads into the Vuelta a España with his usual mix of humour, obsession and a stubborn drive to reinvent himself. In an interview with Het Nieuwsblad he explained how far his routines go, right down to nose hair epilation before the start.

Victor Campenaerts - Tour de France 2025
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At 33, the rider from Team Visma | Lease a Bike has already lived several cycling lives, shifting from time trialist to free spirit to one of the best climbing domestiques in the peloton.

The Belgian is quick to admit that climbing remains a mental battle more than anything. “Climbing is a painful affair. You have to be willing to endure a lot of pain.” He surprised himself in the Tour de France, surviving on the steepest slopes alongside Jonas Vingegaard, where he became one of the Dane’s most valuable helpers. “In the Dauphiné I climbed pretty well, but I never thought I could still be there in the Tour, in the top twenty on the hardest climbs. Yet in the race I was.” 

What carried him through was not just physical form but also mental discipline. He uses small psychological tricks to stretch his limits, convincing himself to follow riders like Pavel Sivakov for just one more acceleration, or taking pride in matching the rhythm of established climbers. “When I see Sivakov taking the lead on a climb I immediately think: you can hang on as long as he does. That creates a sense of pride. Sometimes you survive just one more acceleration and suddenly you are still there. That gives enormous confidence.”

In his constant urge to improve, Campenaerts thrives on rituals and details. One of them is the use of nose strips, part of his belief in what he calls nose breathing. “The idea is that the body gets reverse feedback. When you are really suffering you normally start to hyperventilate through the mouth, but if in those moments you force yourself to breathe through the nose you give your body a signal to relax.” 

He knows it is no miracle cure, but he believes even a small benefit is worth it. “You should not expect wonders from those strips, but once you master the use a little, you still gain a fraction. For that reason I also had my nose hair epilated especially for the Vuelta.”

With a wink Vingegaard even joked it was the reason for his Vuelta selection: “You must come to the Vuelta with me to provide nose strips every day.” Campenaerts laughs. “A joke, of course -but I'm here, right?"

Now that he is here, he has the chance to write his name into the history books by adding a stage victory in all three Grand Tours. 

“It is something that matters more in the Belgian press than to me personally. I left LottoNL-Jumbo in 2017 to chase my own chances, and now I have come back to Visma-Lease a Bike to serve the team in the Tour. Or in the Vuelta. It would fit my story if I could now complete the trilogy by winning a team time trial. Critics may say that does not count, but I looked it up: many riders are on that list with a team time trial among their victories. If we can beat the strong UAE team here, then for me it certainly counts towards the trilogy.”

And when Campenaerts sets his mind to something, he usually finds a way.

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