'You need to enjoy the bike' - Victor Lafay and life beyond the cycling bubble

The podium ceremony had gone way over schedule, and the sun was dipping briskly behind Nanning’s skyscrapers, but Victor Lafay was in no hurry to exit the moment. The Frenchman leant against a barrier as he settled in to talk reporters, including Domestique, through his attempt to wrest the red jersey from Paul Double on the final lap of the final stage of the Tour of Guangxi.

Lafay’s effort was snuffed out by Double’s Jayco-Alula team over the other side of the climb, but that’s not to say it hadn’t paid off. In what might – might – have been the final race of his professional career, he was keen to leave it all out on the road.

“I knew it was quite impossible to go to the finish but at least I tried,” Lafay smiled. “I think we did the perfect race. We just missed a bit of luck, but sometimes we have luck and sometimes we don’t have it. That’s racing.”

Lafay has been publicly pondering retirement in recent months, his head turned in that direction by two years bedevilled by injury since his Tour de France stage win in 2023. After spilling across the line in second place on the summit finish at Nongla on Saturday, Lafay told Domestique that it was still “50-50” whether he would remain a pro in 2026, despite his fine performances over the final weeks of the season.

On Sunday, it was striking that Lafay’s Decathlon-AG2R squad attended the podium ceremony en masse, hollering enthusiastically as their teammate was feted for his second place. Not even Double’s Jayco team had bothered to hang around for the protocol after the finish: was this a hint that Lafay had finally reached a decision on retirement? 

Not quite. At the stage start, unlike teammate Nans Peters, Lafay was not among the riders who received a guard of honour to mark their final day in the professional peloton.

“You saw I didn’t do the retirement thing…” Lafay said. “I think maybe next week I will know about my future, but now it’s too early to tell. I think it’s still 50-50. I have two really good options for my future, and I’m really excited about these two options. I will see… And you will see.”

In an interview with Daniel Benson at the Tour of Britain, Lafay had listed selling cheese in Japan as one of his possible future ventures, though at Nongla, he suggested that he would take on “other sporting projects” if he leaves the WorldTour when his contract with Decathlon expires on December 31.

In the here and now, in any case, Lafay was already eager to combine his duties as a cyclist with his own intellectual curiosity. On Monday, he was due to fly to Beijing with his teammates for an event on behalf of bike sponsor Van Rysel, but he was then travelling onwards to Shanghai off his bat for a spot of tourism. During the Tour of Guangxi itself, meanwhile, Lafay and his teammates availed of the opportunity to soak up life outside the bubble of the WorldTour, wandering around the streets at night in places like Chongzuo and Bama, even taking in a shooting gallery in a funfair.

“It was good because it was the same stages as last year, which meant I knew the stages, but I also knew the cities and where to go after we had a massage in the hotel,” Lafay said. “We had a really good week with the guys and even with the staff, it was really nice. We didn’t do crazy things, but we just had a walk and visited the ancient town.”

The evening forays served as a team building exercise, and Lafay contrasted the cohesion of Decathlon on the Nongla stage with the disjointed displays of UAE and Visma. “You can see like in Jumbo and UAE, yesterday, they were not the same,” Lafay said. “They had two guys, and they didn’t rider for each other. But I think in our team, it’s different. We were like a family here.”

But camaraderie was only part of the story. Stepping out of the usual race-rest-repeat cycle in the evening at the Tour of Guangxi was also a reminder of the wide world that exists behind the peloton. Lafay reckoned it was something he had only previously experienced the Tour du Gabon in his Cofidis days. At WorldTour events in Europe, by contrast, the pressures and demands force riders to remain firmly within their cocoons.

“It’s the end of the season so everyone is more relaxed, and I think that suits me,” he said. “When I’m relaxed, I’m at my best level on the bike but it’s hard to do it at the Tour de France or the big races.”

And that, more than the two years of injury, might be why Lafay has been pondering retirement at the age of just 29. Bike racing at this level has always been a way of life rather than a profession, but these days it seems to be all consuming.

“I feel everyone is getting more and more serious,” he said. “If the riders are happy with this, it’s okay, but I think even in younger categories, they are doing the same job as we are doing and it can be quite early for them. 

“I think one important thing they have to remember is you need to enjoy the bike. Me, when I’m good it’s when I enjoy the bike. I think it’s the same for everybody. You can see Pogacar, when he enjoys it, he’s the best.”

If Lafay does choose to leave the pro peloton in the coming weeks, a perspective like that will be sorely missed.