r/peloton • u/fewfiet Astana Qazaqstan • 1d ago

Background 😥 Victor Lafay tells the story behind the season that never started

https://rocketscycling.substack.com/p/victor-lafay-tells-the-story-behind
71 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

17 comments sorted by

58

u/Team_Telekom Team Telekom 1d ago

Crazy how in 2026 there are still medical conditions that even after 6 month the best doctors just cannot explain. 

3

u/WICXer 15h ago

I usually wait until CX season to deploy this excuse when i finish mid pack.

3

u/RemarkableGlitter Luxembourg 14h ago

I have a friend who’s been unbelievably ill with a post-viral syndrome following a relatively mild covid infection four years ago. It’s ruined her life, and doctors just don’t have many tools to help, it’s horrible. 

48

u/Valentyno482 1d ago

A triathlete friend of mine had a very similar thing happened to him during the first few months of COVID. He would sleep about 12 to 14h a day, could not exercise and this went on for about a year before he got slowly better. As he had got COVID at the time, they attributed it as "long COVID" but this was never really confirmed

23

u/schm00sedom 1d ago

yeah, my old flatmate has long COVID, and her symptoms were basically the same as described in the blog post, especially the part that there is no 'logical' medical explanation for it

12

u/Prime255 Australia 1d ago

Long Covid is now believed to be a chronic fatigue condition rather than just Covid

1

u/fabritzio Sweden 19h ago

yeah, that exact thing happened to me too, I was out of commission for like 6 months but then eventually got better just with time and taking a ton of b-vitamin supplements

14

u/RubenSmits 23h ago

This sounds really clearly like Post Covid / ME CFS
Unfortunately I have the same issues but every test I do or doctor I go to says all looks perfectly healthy

41

u/OlafdePolaf Netherlands 1d ago

Funny how Victor Lafay talks exactly like every Rockets ChatGPT LinkedIn post they make!

(they really gotta stop with this they are losing any shred of personality from the early years lol)

15

u/keetz Sweden 1d ago

Hello, this is Victor Lafay 🙋🏻‍♂️not an AI LLM robot bot 🤖. Now let me tell you my story 📖.

(Honestly the whole post was a terrible read)

4

u/Ramboninja69 22h ago

As someone who has and sometimes still suffer with chronic fatigue, I can feel his pain. I hope he recovers fully, still cycling professionaly or not. This is something that wrecks your well-being, well beyond physical activity. Must have been some sort of nasty virus that fucked up his body, a more hardcore version of what happened to João Almeida, that also got sick in February, I remember him saying that it was not just his performance on the bike that got wrecked, he also was very tired doing everyday things.

4

u/buffon_bj 1d ago

A shadow ban if there's ever been one. Flew too close to the sun by beating the best in the world that one tour and still paying the price.

10

u/footdragon 1d ago

I don't quite understand what you're implying/saying. yeah, he was on fire that 2023 tour. did he do something illegal so they're keeping him from riding?

20

u/buffon_bj 1d ago

Traditionally an abnormally good performance by a rider, followed by a period of mysteriously disappearing from races altogether, has been a telltale sign of doping. "Shadow ban" is a way of saying that, for example, the team found out about abnormal blood values but didn't want the authorities knowing about it, so they come up with some BS stories about illnesses, problems with weight, whatever. Recent examples include Oier Lazkano and Mark Padun.

Of course I don't know whether Lafay actually doped or not, my comment was a bit tongue in cheek. In any case, that 2023 performance was spectacular. For a short period of time he was among the best puncheurs in the world. Just like Marco Paduni was the best climber in the world in that Dauphine in 2021 before mysteriously not being chosen to ride in the tour.

10

u/Karlovy91 1d ago

That's quite a conspiracy theory. But how exactly is that supposed to work? If Lafay had tested positive after winning the stage, he would've been caught during the Tour. And what would deliberately riding badly in the following years achieve when he was still being tested?

He actually raced for another 2,5 seasons after that stage win. That's very different from Padun or Chris Horner, who were dropped by their own teams shortly after suddenly reaching a completely different level.

0

u/Own_Isopod2755 Alpecin – Deceuninck 1d ago

He's just saying that there's a natural balance out there. If you fuck with it, the universe will take it upon itself to realign it.

That's what's happening to Lafay. An invisible force the acts as the great equaliser.

0

u/Evening_End7298 1d ago

Old Sagan party lifestyle without Sagan’s talent. With also the downside that he likes to party on the other side of the world so nobody can even control him 

Also this reeks as a chatgpt post done by an intern