"Next season is a big one" - Thomas Gloag aims to be back at the top in 2025

The bad luck of Visma | Lease a Bike didn't spare anyone, in particular not the 23-year-old climber Thomas Gloag. A huge blow struck the talented British climber in August of 2023 when a car collision caused severe damage on his knee after which he had to sit out a full year. It's not surprising Gloag hopes to turn a page in 2025 and get back on the right track to fulfill his potential.

Speaking to Cycling Weekly, Gloag confidently looks ahead to the new season. But first, he talked about how much the crash in 2023 affected his mental state. "Two weeks after the accident, I took the cast off for the first time to shower, looked down at my knee and fainted," Tom Gloag pauses to let out an embarrassed laugh. "I'd never fainted before, but it was the sight of how much muscle I'd lost. I was out for about a minute," he recounts the shocking details.  

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The young British rider had undergone a long recovery which took him out of competition for nearly a full year. On his comeback, Gloag immediately won the queen stage at the Czech Tour (2.1). However luck didn't play a fair game with the climber and another crash sidelined him for the rest of the season after just a month of racing.

Gloag assures he recovered well from all the injuries and thus can look forward to 2025 with confidence. "The team told me: 'Just take a holiday, mate.' I did recover by October. Next season, though, is a big one. I'm very confident I can be competitive at a pro level."

And that confidence is justified after his win in Czech Republic. "It wasn't the best field, but it was a moment of, 'Wow, I'm here. I have the level.' I had tears in my eyes because finally I was feeling like a bike racer again. I wasn't nervous because various metrics were telling me that, from a physical standpoint, I was as good as I had ever been, so I was really confident," said the man full of potential.

Team owner Richard Plugge shares that confidence. "Tom is such a nice guy that I really hope he will come back at the highest level again. As he has shown by winning in his first race back, he's a very big talent and his potential is huge. That's why we have him in the team. We are working really hard with him and hope that his bad luck is behind him to find out what he can achieve as we move forward."

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