Visma | Lease a Bike hopes Valter's anxiety and nerves after crashes will fade quickly: '"Double trouble for me"

Attila Valter is not feeling too great at the moment. The 25-year-old Hungarian from Visma | Lease a Bike is riding the Giro d'Italia with excellent legs, but he also fell twice in the first week. This has resulted in not just physical damage but mental repercussions as well.

IDLProCycling.com caught up with Valter after the ninth stage, won by his teammate Olav Kooij. It was a splendid victory for the team, but Valter is clearly still shaking off the adrenaline when we speak to him. He briefly expresses his happiness and relief for Kooij before quickly turning the conversation to his own race. "The victory was the only good part of the day for me. It was a very hectic race, and I was glad it was calm during the first half of the stage. I saw Geraint Thomas fall, but other than that, it was okay. Eventually, there was one major crash involving Krieger from Tudor and someone from Bardiani. I wish them the best because it was a big crash." Indeed, Alexander Krieger did not finish...

Valter openly shared these details without any prompting. While his teammates celebrate, he is preoccupied with the potentially deadly ride he has just successfully completed. "The roads in the last five kilometers were ridiculously bad. I was very nervous. I've been feeling good for days, but I'm mostly struggling in my head. I had stress and was nervous and scared in the peloton, in such a hectic finale. That's often the case after falls, so now that I've fallen twice, it's double the trouble for me. I hope it goes away because I have the legs to help the guys."

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Valter, with trembling legs, couldn't take his turn at the front

Valter provides a practical example from the ninth stage. Jhonatan Narváez was riding solo deep into the finale, and the sprinters' teams had to do everything to bring the Ecuadorian from INEOS Grenadiers back. Visma | Lease a Bike did not contribute to this effort. "I was asked to take a turn at the front, but the pace was so fast that I couldn't make it to the front. My positioning wasn't very good," laughs Valter, implying that he preferred to stay safer towards the back. "However, I also knew that they could manage without me in the last ten kilometers, because sprinting is a different discipline than climbing in the mountains. I can lead the peloton until thirty kilometers from the finish, but not beyond that."

At Visma | Lease a Bike, team director Marc Reef calmly listens to Valter's quotes when we present them to him. "It's often like this with guys who crash. One might get over it the next day, while another might take a bit more time. Eventually, it will fade with time, and he will undoubtedly get better at it," he remains calm. "The rest day will help, but also staying focused in the race and having a specific task can ensure that he makes progress in this area. It will take time, but Jan Tratnik and Attila are in good shape."