One of last season's breakout stars, Maxim Van Gils (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), has opened up about the difficult winter and spring that have curtailed his first year with his new team.
The 25-year-old, who took stand-out results including third in Strade Bianche and fourth in Liège-Bastogne-Liège in 2024, was expected to be a new star for Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, but has instead seen sickness and injury limit his abilities during the first half of 2025.
After an injury forced him out of the end of the Ardennes Classics, Van Gils returned to racing at the Tour of Norway, where he won a stage, and is now in action at the Critérium du Dauphiné, where he spoke at length about his season so far to Het Nieuwsblad.
He explained to the Belgian newspaper how sickness over the winter, sickness at Ruta del Sol, allergies during the spring and then a crash at the Amstel Gold Race saw him struggle during all the key points of his season.
Reflecting on this season compared to last year, Van Gils said that his condition has actually been better, but he's not had the good fortune he found in 2024.
"The strange thing is that I always felt bad during training last year, but in the race, everything really fell into place," he told Het Nieuwsblad.
"I could practically throw at a dart board with my eyes closed, and I would still hit the bullseye. While this year, I did things much more correctly and often had a better feeling, but now everything went wrong.
"Of course, this is not what you want," he reflected. "I had just joined a new team. You want to show the best version of yourself. That was not exactly the case."
Van Gils was one of several big signings for Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe for 2025, after an extended negotiation with Lotto to get him out of his previous contract, and he did admit that the move may have hampered his preparations for the season.
"It's not that I would make a different choice today, I still fully support that, but it did make it a different winter than usual," he said. "It was more about that transfer than about training. Meetings, discussions, travel. I may have underestimated that. Maybe with a top winter, I would have found my form more quickly after an illness.”
Van Gils' rocky spring was also part of a wider disappointing period for Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, who made a lot of big signings, especially of Classics riders, and saw "little return", according to Van Gils.
However, whilst questions may still be asked about Red Bull as a whole, Van Gils was positive in the face of his own setbacks.
"It is not that I was crying in bed or walking around depressed. Even in that Ardennes week I could handle it all," he said.
"Yes, this was annoying. And no, I could not ride my races the way I wanted. But to panic? No. I signed here for three years. We are not in a rush. There is still time to achieve my goals."
Though he admits the Dauphiné is a different beast from the Tour of Norway, where he won last week, Van Gils is in France, ready to race, and trying to turn his season around to start building towards those long-term goals.
