Loris Vergier's closed the book on a career year
Loris Vergier finished his first season with Trek Factory Racing in third place on the World Cup overall: The first overall podium of his career.
Vergier closed the season on an incredible run, winning a European championship, two World Cup races and a World Cup bronze in a little more than a month. He bounced back strong after an inauspicious start to World Cup racing. A puncture forced him to take a DNF at the opening race in Leogang, and he finished 25th in Les Gets after torrential rain made the course a mess for later riders.
Loris Vergier getting aero for a bronze medal in Snowshoe on Wednesday.
He entered the last race of the season in incredible form. Just three days before, he and teammate Reece Wilson took bronze and gold, respectively, during the first of two finals in Snowshoe. Unfortunately, Saturday simply was not Vergier’s day. Small mistakes piled up, and he ended the race in 54th place.
The day doesn’t mar the fact that Vergier just finished arguably the best end-to-end season of his career.
When the 25-year-old, known affectionately as the “Fast Loris”, signed with Trek Factory Racing at the beginning of the year, he looked forward to the strong team environment, great technical support and a chance to push himself as a rider.
Reece Wilson and Loris Vergier celebrating a double podium for TFR.
“I trusted Trek to bring me to the top and help me achieve what I’m meant to do,” Vergier said. “And everything that we talked about, the resources, almost like the love, that was really big. And I was like, ‘OK, I want to be there. I want to be part of that.'”
There’s no question he was part of a special squad. Teammate Reece Wilson finished fifth on the overall and got a World Cup win himself on Wednesday to wrap up a great follow-up effort to his World Championship season. Kade Edwards scored a career World Cup result and took third on the fearsome Red Bull Hardline track. Charlie Harrison started the season on a hot streak, and showed incredible grit in coming back from a broken wrist.
The future is bright for a young TFR team (somehow, Vergier is the old man of the crew). After a great year, expect this squad to come back even stronger in 2022.
