"There are unwritten rules that you have to respect" - Felix Gall's Giro podium may have been secured due to tradition
Cycling
Felix Gall has just finished second at the Giro d'Italia, the best result of his career in a Grand Tour and the one where he showed his best level in the mountains. The Austrian could benefit from an unwritten rule amongst the pros, which might have been the reason why he was never tested on the downhills.
“Very positive. We came here with big ambitions, and those turned out to be achievable. On paper we were aiming for top five, but dreaming of top three," Decathlon CMA CGM Team rider Oliver Naesen shared with IDLProCycling.
Fifth place at last year's Tour certainly allowed Gall to aim higher at this year's Giro, after the withdrawal of riders such as João Almeida, Richard Carapaz, Mikel Landa (before the start); whilst in the first stages Santiago Buitrago and Adam Yates were also forced to abandon.
"We had thought that Giulio Pellizzari would be the second-best climber behind Vingegaard, but it turned out to be us. That was fantastic," the Belgian said. In the first week is where Gall really took a big amount of time on his direct rivals for the podium fight; but it was his consistency throughout the whole race that had him finish so high.
“Before the Giro I already knew that Felix would be among the best two or three climbers, but how big would the beating be in the 42-kilometre time trial? The big GC riders who are strong time triallists were not really here, so the damage remained limited. Still, danger is always lurking around the corner in a Grand Tour.”
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Positioning the key for Gall's second place?
On the mountains the Austrian was able to recover the time he lost on the time trial, mostly to Thymen Arensman. But above that, he avoided time losses in crashes, crosswinds, and his notable weakness - the descents. Naesen explains how his 'second-best' status at the Giro from early on helped him and the team.
“In previous years Felix wasted a lot of energy wriggling and pushing for position, energy he then lacked uphill. If it is clear that you are the second-best climber in the peloton, it is hard for the rest to attack us. There are unwritten rules that you have to respect," the veteran argues. "As second in the standings, you are the second team in line in the peloton, which means Felix was always eighth or ninth at the front.”
This ultimately meant that the climber was never truly tested on the downhills, where in the past he has experienced difficult moments. “That was ideal for every descent. If a Filippo Ganna had been riding alongside us at that moment with Thymen Arensman, that would not have been allowed," Naesen explains. The other teams would race under the same assumption.
"And it works the other way too; if we had been behind INEOS in the standings, we would also not have ridden in front of or inside their train, and we would have had to endure the race behind them.”
Oliver Naesen safeguarded Gall personally
Aside from that, Naesen was the road captain for the team, making decisions on the go and communicating with other teams. The French team was often clashing with Team Visma | Lease a Bike and it was Naesen who would do the talking.
“Victor Campenaerts is the mouthpiece at Visma | Lease a Bike, and if he came over to Felix in a flat stage to ask what we were planning, he would always answer ‘I’m just a passenger, talk to Oliver and leave me alone'.”
The team's tactics were quite conservative when it came to having men in breakaway, with the group sticking together throughout most of the race. However, it was a working strategy, with Gall finishing second at the end of the race.
“In those stages nothing was expected of him, he just had to finish with the first group. That gave him a lot of peace. After that crash on day two, I also told Felix 'we are not involved in that. It was wet, we were riding at 90 per hour, so we stayed centrally at the back'. I promised him I would get him back to the front when we reached the climb. Those really were Felix’s strengths in this Giro," he concluded.
Rúben SilvaEditor-in-Chief
A founding contributor to CyclingUpToDate since its launch in January 2022, Ruben Silva has played a central role in shaping the site’s editorial direction and long-term growth. Before joining the project, he built his experience through independent blogging at Echelons Hub and by producing race previews for Ciclismo Internacional, developing a strong analytical voice rooted in daily engagement with professional cycling.
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Originally from the Porto metropolitan area in Portugal, he holds a bachelor’s degree in Geography. His path into cycling journalism was shaped not through formal media training, but through independent reporting, community engagement, and sustained on-the-ground involvement in the sport.
Over the course of his career, he has conducted approximately 100 interviews across road cycling and cyclocross, ranging from one-to-one conversations and online formats to press conferences and on-site pre- and post-race coverage. His interviews include leading riders, team managers, and prominent figures within cycling media: Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, Mathieu van der Poel, Primoz Roglic, Wout van Aert, Joao Almeida and Tom Pidcock; managers like Patrick Lefevere and Joxean Matxin; and YouTube personality Bryan Kennedy (BKXC)...
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- I hope he rides a bitmij15-11-2026
- Greatest athlete this world has ever produced ! LOL ... you definitely are a comdian ! Cycling is so sprecialized and you think he's the greatest athlete ever ! Still laughing !frieders315-11-2026
- b.s. headline. Jonas wasn't told anything, it is just a pundit telling him what to do. the actual article is not even close to the insinuation of the headline.mij15-11-2026
- I think Roglic could have beaten Sepp. not Jonas. I was referring to Sepp.mij15-11-2026
- I'm deeply sick of this guy and his unwillingness to race seriously for more than a month or two. I'll never respect riders who do that. Seixas will be stronger than him next season, and maybe Del Toro as well. I don't even think he'll finish on the podium at any GT where Pogi, Seixas, and Del Toro are racing.megasmacky15-11-2026
- Not a chance in hell.megasmacky15-11-2026
- If you go watch some races from last season other riders that have never caught Jonas...are now catching him. Some are just riding away from him and he can't hold the wheelmd197514-11-2026
- He just doesn't have the desire anymore. I read an article earlier today that said he almost retired last year. His reasoning was he is away from home to much. Visma was able to keep him riding by allowing him to skip certain camps. So, while currently Visma is doing altitude work...Jonas is at home. Which means 2 things. 1- He maybe fresher than other riders. But, not the condition. 2-Is a somewhat slap in the face to others on the team that are supposed to help him win. Yet feel like he hasn't done what they have so perhaps they don't provide as good of protection or they ride more for theme (which the team may not notice).md197514-11-2026
- Roglic could not have won anyway, after Jonas followed him when Roglic decided it was his turn for a stage win. Jonas had already attacked Kuss twice, so it was Jonas who was within seconds of taking the lead before Kuss was 'gifted' the win. It felt a bit like Roglic was being thrown under the bus when the team made his unhappiness public.Hills3314-11-2026
- POG1, another nice doc about our favourite, I watched most of it with a big smile on my face (except for the bits about his crashes 😢 obvs!).Lozza14-11-2026
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