🚨🚀 He was quitting pro cycling. Now, Victor Lafay is a Rocketeer
The story behind the Rockets' signing another Tour de France stage winner.
Hello Rocketeers!
We have some breaking news for you today:
🇫🇷 🥖 Victor Lafay is joining the Rockets.
Victor Lafay (29) is a Tour de France and Giro d’Italia stage-winner. In the final World Tour race of the 2025 season, the Tour of Guangxi in China, he finished in 2nd place overall.
It has been rumored in the press this year that Victor would stop racing, with him saying himself, “I’m really at 50-50”, if he wanted to continue his professional racing career.
Bringing Victor onto the Rockets is a huge step, not just for our sporting project, but for the meaning of the team. In our latest YouTube video, Victor says he’s different, and that he was not ‘fitting inside the box’ of WorldTour teams.
✍🏻 We’re going to go into Bas’ diary to show exactly how Victor Lafay’s signing came to life.
🤔 Early October: First Contact
It all started by speaking with Victor’s agent. He explained to us that Victor was out of contract, and even though he is physically phenomenal, he was starting to have doubts about the life as a professional athlete.
Victor is still enjoying training hard and riding his bike, but he wasn’t enjoying the pro cycling lifestyle, something I can relate to. He wanted to go on an adventure, and enjoy everything around cycling.
He was already aware of our project, but we explained it some more and that’s when he told us about his YouTube channel. He wants to inspire people to ride bikes…
❌😩 We sent a proposal… but he rejected it.
Victor said he wasn’t sure if he wanted to continue in the sport. It was quite the bummer for us, but if someone is not happy within professional cycling, it doesn’t make sense for me to push them.
With my own background in pro-racing, I understood some of Victor’s perspective. He told me he wanted to “break the codes of cycling and bring some fun into this boring world”. We speak the same language.
I told him I’d be really interested in coming to his home in Annecy to have a chat in person. This was on October 7th, when there were only two days before he flew to China.
🎫 So I booked my flight to France…
✈️ October 8th & 9th: Bas flies to Annecy
I traveled light, and Victor arranged for me to use the bike that he won his Tour de France stage with. We rode around the beautiful lake in Annecy and spoke for hours. And I asked him…
😀 How can we make a year that you are really enjoying?
Is it adventure rides? Is it how you build up the season? Our philosophy as the owners of the team can be quite different to what someone has experienced in the past.
Victor asked me if he could think about a certain calendar. A way he sees his perfect season. He’s determined to be part of our journey toward the Tour de France and take on that challenge together. He has raced it twice, but never reached Paris, so that’s something he still wants to do.
I never went to Annecy to push Victor to join our team, I just wanted to talk.
🥈October 14-19th: Victor finishes 2nd in Tour of Guangxi
On Stage 5 in the Tour of Guangxi, it was Paul Double who won, but Victor Lafay who finished second. He really was one of the strongest riders there.
He finished 2nd in General Classification as well, and then went on a small trip (🍺) in China. We stayed in touch messaging, but I saw some media articles saying he was 50-50 if he wanted to continue.
🤔 These decisions are super personal, and I didn’t want to pressure him.
It was after his trip, that he suggested to come over to Amsterdam.
🤯 November 2nd: Victor arrives in Amsterdam
Devin and I stood at the gate in Schiphol Airport waiting for Victor to arrive, and then we went straight to dinner with Julia (Sports Manager) and Eelco (Chief Sports Officer).
We spoke about all sorts of things: the race calendars, our plans for the team. We didn’t want to push, but we needed to know how to prepare for next season. At a certain point, we asked him:
❓Victor, how do you see your future?
And he said…
🥳 I came here for a reason. I really want to go to the Tour de France with you.
🎥 November 3rd: Media day at Rockets HQ
We’d already planned some content ideas in case Victor said yes. This day was about bringing it all together.
We sat Victor down for interviews in front of the camera, and spoke about what it meant for him to join the team.
For us, signing Victor is a huge asset for the team. We’ve already made some strong additions, but he has a punchy profile which can help us in races where we haven’t been able to perform at the top level.
❤️ Victor rides with his heart, he rides offensively.
🚀 A message from Victor Lafay
“The story Bas told me, and what this team stands for, made me realize I wasn’t done yet. Here, I feel I can be myself and play a real part in something exciting. I dream of getting good results again and of being on the start line of the Tour de France.
I’ve never finished in Paris, and that’s something I still want to experience.”
- Victor Lafay
Victor shares his full story: from almost quitting the sport to rediscovering his passion on that ride in Annecy.
Another big announcement for the Rockets, and with every one, I feel more confident going into the 2026 season. Deals like these are months in the making, and quite the journey.
With my background as a rider, I had quite the same experiences as Victor, though I wasn’t as good as him! I could understand his perspective on the hard parts of professional cycling and the lack of fun.
It was a bit of a bummer when Victor first said he wouldn’t continue. But, that’s part of the entrepreneurial spirit we have at the Rockets - it’s never about forcing someone to ride, it’s about finding the right spark.
We decided to ask again.
We’re a new team, with a different approach. We sent our YouTube videos, our journey, what we’re building. It takes time to connect with that. It would’ve been easy to just move on and sign another rider, but we didn’t want that. Not with Victor.
Rocketeers, we’re so excited for 2026! Thank you all for being a part of this.
- Bas 🩵💜
Another great story Bas, really hope it all works out. Some great quality coming into the team, can't wait for the new season.
Good signing ! Excellent attitude. Hopefully his health woes are behind him