Former Visma | Lease a Bike climber endures tough start at new team: “Mentally quite challenging”

After three full but difficult WorldTour seasons, Thomas Gloag left Visma | Lease a Bike. Last winter, he opted for a fresh challenge with Pinarello-Q36.5 Pro Cycling. But his start with the team has not gone according to plan at all. After a series of setbacks, the British climber returns to racing this weekend, hoping things will finally move in the right direction.

After leaving Visma | Lease a Bike, Gloag made his debut for his new team in Portugal, and he did very well. He finished tenth in the Figueira Classic, followed by an eleventh-place finish in the Tour of the Algarve. "I was in pretty good shape in the Figueira Classic, and also in the Algarve," he says on the team's website. "I kept getting better as the race went on. On the final day, I finished fifth, and I felt good."

He then headed to France for the Faun-Ardèche Classic and the Faun Drôme Classic. There, he was unable to compete for the prizes, and in the latter race things went completely wrong. “On the Saturday, I was feeling not great, but not terrible. Then on the Sunday, I was really bad and ended up stopping with 50 kilometres to go.”

That turned out not to be without reason. There was no improvement in the situation, so Gloag had to be examined. That revealed what the problem was. “I had a virus, and then some post-viral fatigue. The team managed it well, they were really supportive. Lorenz, and the medical team in Switzerland, have been really good.”

But it was a difficult and long process. The viral infection meant the British climber ultimately could not touch his bike at all for more than a month. “The uncertainty is always hard. We didn’t really know what to do, because we didn’t really know what was wrong. I love racing. I love riding my bike. This is what I do, this is my life.”

And so it was mentally difficult for Gloag, who could not think about racing for a long time. “For a few weeks, I really didn’t know what I could do. That’s mentally quite challenging, when you don’t have a rehab plan or a timeline of when the illness will go.” Fortunately, he made his return to the peloton on May 17 at Rund um Köln. “I was really happy to be back with the team, and to help my teammates a little bit.”

After that, it was another month without racing for Gloag, who now returns at the GP Gippingen on June 14. “I really hope to be a valuable rider for the team from now until the end of the season. I want to be at a consistent level, so that I can compete in the finals of races, and for more than two days. That’s the big thing for me.”

Author: David Bavin-Hobbs - [email protected]