Felix Gall

Gall came to cycling through school friends who raced triathlon, and grew up in East Tyrol, in the south of Austria. He won the Austrian junior road race title in 2015, and that September took the junior world championship in Richmond, attacking with 20 kilometres to go and holding off Clement Betouigt-Suire in a two-up sprint.

Five years in the Sunweb and DSM system produced an Austrian under-23 road title in 2018 and the overall win at the Istrian Spring Trophy in 2019, but little at WorldTour level. He left a year before his contract expired, during a period when several riders had fallen out with the management. He rode his first Grand Tour, the Giro, in 2022.

The 2023 season turned on two rides. At the Tour de Suisse he went alone on the climb to Leukerbad and won by more than a minute over Remco Evenepoel, his first professional victory, and became the first Austrian to lead that race since 2005. At the Tour de France he took the queen stage to Courchevel with a solo ride over the Col de la Loze, finishing eighth overall and third among the young riders.

Little went right in 2024, with a run of races through the spring that left him short of form. He came good again at the Tour de Suisse in June, then finished fourteenth at the Tour de France and rode the Vuelta a España in support of Ben O'Connor.

Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale sent him to the 2025 Tour without a fixed general classification target, and he raced the mountains on the attack rather than defensively. He climbs far better than he time trials, and the third week suits him. He finished fifth in Paris, a placing no Austrian had bettered at the Tour since Peter Luttenberger in 1996, then doubled up at the Vuelta and took eighth there, without a stage win in either race.