Strange but true. While some riders are best remembered for how they won a race, for others, it's their reaction to the triumph - the celebration and the immediate aftermath - that lingers longest in fans' collective memory. Such was surely the case for Victor Campenaerts, whose victory last year on stage 18 of the Tour de France against fellow breakaways Michał Kwiatkowski and Mattéo Vercher was widely remembered not so much for him outsprinting them, but for his huge outpouring of emotions and explanations that followed.
As the Belgian said at the time, the period at the 2024 Classics had been very tough for him, with his then team, Lotto-Dstny, failing to discuss a promised contract extension even as he embarked on a nine-week altitude training camp in Spain. It was an exceptionally long camp, but as Campenaerts recounted, "My girlfriend" - whom he called, in tears, on the phone from the stage 18 finish line - "was there and she supported me every day, while pregnant, as I was struggling to even fulfil my training program. I doubted I had a future in cycling even as I was about to become a father," he added, explaining why her support had been so important.
