I love Victor Campenaerts.
His emphatic victory on stage 18 of the 2024 Tour de France will go down as one of the highlights of this year’s race.
Breaking away with Michal Kwiatkowski and Mattéo Vercher with 35km to go, Campenaerts led the disciplined trio through rolling terrain to a three-up sprint, beating the others in a well-deserved win for the former Hour Record holder and all-round on-bike grafter.
His tear-jerking post-race interview was a further triumph for my biggest Belgian crush – it’s clear ‘Campi’ is an immensely kind, nice and well-liked man who simply loves riding bikes.
He is also, crucially, a massive bike tech dork. Campenaerts’ pursuit of aero gains and passion for waxed chains would make even Simon von Bromley blush.
This, combined with his affable ways, would make him the perfect addition to BikeRadar's roster of exceptionally gifted tech correspondents.
His beautiful tucked-in TT-like pedalling style, narrow bars and aero socks all speak of a man who has spent a lot of time reading the AeroCoach blog and comparing tyres on Bicycle Rolling Resistance.
He has also experimented extensively with large chainrings, 1x setups and Classified hubs – all classic tropes of the budding tech features writer.
While I can’t imagine it would match the highs of winning a Grand Tour stage, he is a moustachio’d man I can fine well imagine delighting in unearthing, testing and discussing some mad, mega-niche aero upgrade.
That he chooses to race without glasses and prefers black shoes marks him out as a man willing to go against the grain – if anything, just to annoy commenters. Love or hate, engagement is engagement, and Campi knows that.
He’s already shown himself as a natural and daft presenter with his immensely fun Instagram feed.
Each day, he speaks with his teammates and other riders in the peloton, debriefing on tactics, 'woofing' Wout van Aert (I don’t know either) and talking about the merits of aero socks. It’s devilishly charming stuff.
I would love nothing more than to have my head absolutely kicked in by Campenaerts on an episode of BikeRadar Gravel Diaries or unleash him on an unsuspecting grotty lane in a South West hill climb.
All of this is, of course, wishful thinking.
One of the finest bike riders of our time with a penchant for tech has many years of racing ahead of him and, long-term, is surely destined to do wonderful things as a technical director or directeur sportif.
But that won’t stop me from dreaming of bickering about the merits of tubeless inserts over lunch with my favourite rider in the pro peloton.
If Lotto-Dstny is reading this, at least lend that lilting deep Flemish accent for an hour on the BikeRadar Podcast – it would be the highlight of my career.
