The 24 hours we signed Victor Lafay | Behind The Scenes 👀

He was ready to quit cycling… until Bas called.

Go behind the scenes with Tour de France stage winner Victor Lafay: from the moment we picked him up at Schiphol to the late-night talks about his future. This is how Victor became a Rocket. 🚀

In this video, you’ll see how Victor opened up about his doubts about life as a pro cyclist, his dream of selling cheese in Japan, and his first day at Rockets HQ.

Watch the full interview with Victor Lafay in our newest newsletter: https://open.substack.com/pub/rocketscycling/p/he-was-quitting-pro-cycling-now-victor?r=2wte1g&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

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Get exclusive access to raw emotions, cycling challenges, vlogs, pro rider interviews, and our road to glory on the international cycling stage. Expect epic race day footage, you might even catch the best cycling tips during a bikefit or how our team does the bike maintenance to the cycling gear. From WorldTour wildcards to gravel rides, and from team bus chaos to podium dreams, we’ve got it all.

To the Tour and beyond! 🚀

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Boss, where are we going this night? This Sunday night. This Sunday night. Do you remember? Do you remember Victor Laf? I remember Victor Laf. Do you remember the moment that I said that he declined our offer? Hello Julia. I hope everything okay. I have Victor yesterday and you want to stop car. He asked me uh to give you this news. Sorry about that, but he want to stop. I’m sorry. We heard you wanted to quit pro cycling. Yeah. Why? Yeah. Um, yeah, it’s it’s hard to to tell because uh I think I enjoy more and more to cycle and to ride my bike. Um but also um yeah I think I needed more uh fun in my life and uh in a world tour teams sometimes yeah it’s uh really uh strict and you have to fit in a in a box and yeah I think I was not fitting inside this this box I was thinking about selling cheese in Japan and having a food truck of cromio at that moment bas contacted me Hey, hello Victor. Good evening. I just wanted to say uh Victor that I would be really open to to come over to on the sea to discuss this with you because it sounds so familiar as as the experience I have. If you make the decision to quit cycling, I I really support it because I think it’s it’s also a huge decision to make and I think you thought about that really well. But uh if you are open for it, I would be really happy to come over. I’m at Striple airport yesterday where he received the news he declined our offer and that he is thinking about quitting cycling at all. And then Bas text me like um okay I really understand how you feel. We share quite the same story. He said okay maybe we can just discuss about it uh um tomorrow. I think we ride for 1 hour, but we stopped for 4 hours to to discuss and yeah, it was really really nice. I think it’s pretty good if you can sit down and just talk. And that’s what we did. Every decision he makes is a good decision. Like maybe he his goal was to to find a way I can join the team. But I think it was also to have a discussion with me and uh and to understand me. Yeah. And we did a a bike ride over there just before he went for his last races in China. Actually, he finished there second in did you see the last world tour race of the season, but he was still in doubt to continue or not. And then during his offseason trip after that race in Asia, he messaged me that he wanted to come over to uh to our place because I went to the sea and now he wanted to come here to uh to discuss for the possibilities to join the Rockets next year. But yeah, it would be a a huge addition to the team and especially with our dream to compete in the tour to France. see as a former to the front stage winner. Uh yeah, that would be a huge signing to to be to a ready next year. Yeah. So yeah, he is arriving 10 minutes before 7 from a flight from Copenhagen and then we’re going to pick him up and we will have a dinner in Amsterdam together with Julia and Ilko as well. Yeah. and then we will see what happens. Uh my expectations are that we know a lot more within 24 hours and maybe already after tonight. Yeah. Yeah. Fl 1815 Copenhagen London the Victor. How are you? All good. Oh, good. How are you? Victor. Hi. Nice to meet you. Yeah, good. Did you travel in Asia with this one as well or did you come back at home and then to Copenhagen? Just a half a day at home and again this moment you can make the chase. How do you know this was the car? Yeah. Julia booked the restaurant or ilco. Okay. We heard you travel through Asia. So we uh we booked an Indonesian restaurant. Really? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we do a lot of sports in our family but we don’t really follow sports like when um when I became professional um I I didn’t know about any rider maybe yes Chris from I don’t know like brother but yeah when I arrived uh Maybe some French rice pino. Yeah. Pino bar. But that I think that’s it. And now much more. Yeah. Yeah. Now, now everybody knows you. So, and I know almost everyone just new riders sometimes I don’t know. But yeah, I went to a hospital. Was that also the last tour you did? Yeah. So you never reached Paris? I I reached but not by. So you still need to reach Paris. Yeah. And uh also with Muhammad I think now it’s Yeah. Yeah. Is that a good stage for me? I’ll be call the Yeah. The mut it’s like the same. Hi. Hello. Hi. Hi. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Hello. Hey. Hey. Hello. How are you? What is it for? Okay. Any last words? Nope. Yeah. See you tomorrow. See you tomorrow. Look like a happy happy So, it’s qu Hi man. How are you? Nice to meet you. Same. Hi Mark. Peter, one of the media guys. Yeah, I can see. Yeah, you can see. What are you going to do, Mark? Deon just asked, “Make sure you film them coming to the office.” The whole day. All day. Make sure you follow Victor the whole day. Okay. Yeah. I will show you around a little bit. Okay. Welcome. Welcome. the coffee. Yeah, Anthony French. Yeah, French. Yeah, this is Lucas. Look, Lucas has a fan club in Slovakia and they are making all these merchandise for him. Like, what is it? Beer or I don’t know. I think it’s a beer, right, Mark? Yeah, they didn’t tell. Yeah, there are two types. There’s one alcohol free and one free. No, it’s okay. Not now. Later. morning. How was it yesterday? Cool. Uh you did the evening walk. Yeah, I did. And then I wanted to go to my hotel. Yeah. And uh yeah, it was closed. Was closed. And yeah, it was written. Okay. If you you arrive after 5. Oh, thank you. Then you need to send message to do selfch checking. I sent message waited for 10 minutes and it was midnight. Yeah. So thinking they will know reply and they didn’t reply. So I went to another hotel. So here’s where the bikes are stored. Yeah, I can see. And this is I can this is the new uh new frame. Yeah. And the new design. Can I see it? Yeah. Yeah. There’s a little bit of sparkle in it. But I think the purple so it will This is uh morning. Hi. Hi. Hi. One of the media guys. Okay. Welcome. One of the one of the many we remember. It was the place where we did the video. Yeah. With this one. Yeah. What do you think of that video? The Rory video. This is the behind the scenes professional. We actually are behind the scenes for for the media team like we are in a peak right now. Like we we have to be in a peak right now because we have a lot of things that we have to do. Peak season. It’s peak season. Like I really like this period of time where we exciting. Yeah. Uh, and and this morning you had a call like what are we going to do for what what do we want to shoot? And uh it’s really fun to be creative with a bit of pressure. You just walk from there onto the chair, sit down and you just look straight into the lens for about 10 seconds. It’s going to be maybe feel a bit weird with four guys standing here like okay what? No, but yeah, it will be useful useful for our edits. Take a very serious face. Uh so feel free can just walk walk in the frame and then Yeah. Okay. Maybe you do one more time. We’ll see. Let’s just start easy. Can you uh can you introduce yourself to me? Like who are you? What’s your name? Where you from? How old are you? Hi. Uh I’m Victor Leaf. Uh French guy and I’m 29. I will turn 30 next year. Um and yeah, been professional since 2018. um just two teams before coffee this and yeah I’m here to join rockets. So afterh you are doubting and and questioning yourself if you want to continue what happened cuz what what what did boss do and what did bos did? Yeah. Um actually uh yeah I had a lot of um teams interesting in uh having me uh for next year but I wanted to to go on adventure uh next year can be with selling cheese but also u doing some bike trips gravel. I I I don’t know. I didn’t know but yeah when bus called me yeah we really want to to go to the tour to France next year and uh we need to have you for this and I was thinking okay I can be part of this and uh yeah part of this adventure because uh for you it will be and uh yeah I want to yeah to experience this with you. Yeah you want to go on an adventure with us with our team. Yeah. when did you start doubting like was at one point or was it like a process you know yeah it was uh two years ago when I had my knee injury yeah during 5 months um I didn’t know if I could uh ride again so yeah I I needed to to think about uh what I could do if I don’t ride I was thinking about selling cheese in Japan and having a food truck of crocmasure all of my friends uh they they tell me I need to do this um food truck of crocmasure because Yeah, I make them very good. But I heard you’re doing the same here. Yeah, we have the same at lunch. So, you can make one for us. Yeah, I will see if it’s really good and uh I can show you how to improve it. That’s right. That’s right. From my experience, white bread is better because uh if you use a complete one Yeah. The taste of the bread is too strong. Yeah, I’m looking for butter. But yeah, I told you you have real one. I’ll do with this. You need to put a lot. The most important is to do in angles because uh otherwise it’s um it’s dry here. Yeah. In corners. Yeah. Corners. And you have to do uh on two sides, notes. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe just one time. Yeah. Okay. I think that’s it. Let’s uh we need to cook it. Get the the cheese melt. Yeah. Maybe that’s why like creamy. There’s always a big uh big traffic jam in front of the toy maker. But Oh, yeah. Lucky. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe I can put here. Yeah, you can see the the cheese is melting. Yeah. Yeah, you can you can smell it as well. It’s good. Good smell. Yeah. This welcome to my craft documentary. I didn’t do the butter, but you did good using the white bread. Oh, yeah. And you you’ll do the reviews of all theies. He did good. But yeah, I think um you you share u the same uh philosophy as me. We we have to to have fun. We can do this and be serious at the same time. And uh it’s what a lot of people in cycling they can’t understand. But I think fans they can understand this. You have a lot of fans. Yeah. to perform, you don’t need to be too serious. You have to take it uh to train seriously and to do everything seriously, but then you can have fun and uh make jokes. Uh yeah, that’s what you all hope to find next year in our team. Yeah. Um I I think I really want and and need to to enjoy uh like riding but also sharing moments uh with with guys. Then uh yeah if uh if we can lost together then uh I will be happy. I don’t know maybe it can be okay now. Oh I wait still. Yeah. Yeah. So how is your day so far? Yeah. Really nice. Yeah. Yeah. I enjoy being here and uh like to see all the service calls. Yeah. All the bikes. Yeah. All the bikes. All people working at your bikes and making some funny content. Yeah. Also, I just I put too much cheese soup of it. What are your ambitions for next year? Of course, is to to go again to the tour with you. Yeah, I’m here for this. And yeah, uh I really want to to go again to to the France and uh and yeah, try to win again a stage maybe the second one again. Probably it’s also a different way of how you look at the camera and there to see what the races are are suiting you right because I think now we are still in the opportunity to make some decisions. So I think it’s nice if we can walk over it, but it also needs to fit a little bit with the other riders that we are having in the team and to find a good balance there. Because if we’re only racing the highest level races, then we also need to think of okay, basically the example of uh Armst etc. Yeah. what I did the last uh months. Um I felt so good on the bike the last races I think I was at my highest level uh in my career. I I think I I need to to do uh something more in cycling and uh for me, but even for um like people that are following me. Uh I received a lot of messages you need to to continue. And yeah, I want to still inspire u people that uh share my philosophy of riding like enjoying but also uh yeah, train hard to be good. Uh, so yeah, I need to to continue cycling for this.