Felix Gall 🇦🇹

What an outstanding performance by Gall yesterday at the Tour de France! We knew he was good from when he claimed first at the Tour de Suisse on Stage 4 - but we honestly didn't think the GC would give him enough of a gap to be able to take the stage. But he didn't need much of a gap at all given his insane climbing abilities.

Gall also noted at the Tour de Suisse that he desperately needed to work on his time trial. Well clearly a month made a difference (and, well, a hilly time trial course) with Gall placing 13th overall at the stage 16 time trial the day before. If we can get Gall on a better time trial bike setup compared to what AG2R currently has (apparently it's not correctly setup for him right now and they'll work on it over the winter) then his GC prospects are looking fine.

And a third on the stage five too! Stellar.

Overall his year has been strong with multiple podium finishes at the Tour de Suisse, Tour of the Alpes-Maritimes, Tour of the Alps, and a few top ten's at Itzulia Basque country. All trending nicely in the right direction. Somebody is in for a big payday on his next contract resigning. And we might just be in for one if we bet him right.

Strengths

All climbs in general. If you take a look at the courses he has podiumed it's not just one specific style of climb that Gall is good at. His descending is also super strong, with half of the podiums or top tens he has achieved not being a hilltop finish but one that has a hard and fast descent prior to the finish line.

Still. The steeper and longer the better. It seems he leans a tad more to a Vingegaard than to a Pogacar in terms of the climbs he excels at.

When to bet

In terms of winning stages? Feel free to load up on hilly stages where he'll be allowed to make the break. In terms of GC? Also feel free if the event has a hilly parcour. But hold off until next year (or maybe later in the fall if they get their act together sooner) if the event has multiple time trial kilometers involved. Especially if those time trial kilometers are flat.

We're interested to see how Gall develops, especially on rouleur based terrain. We imagine he'll trend to being less adept in rouleur based races though and sway more Vingegaard than Pogacar. In the sense he won't be able to power through the spring classics in 2024 like Pogacar has started to make his mark on.