Visma Confirm Vingegaard's Tour de France Squad as Piganzoli Steps Into the Van Aert-Sized Void
Visma-Lease a Bike have unveiled the eight riders who will line up alongside Jonas Vingegaard at the Tour de France, naming a squad built almost entirely around protecting and propelling the two-time champion on a route that climbs from Barcelona to Paris. With Tadej Pogacar installed as the overwhelming favourite, the Dutch team have assembled a roster designed for one purpose: to crack the UAE leader in the high mountains.
The headline names are familiar. Matteo Jorgenson and Sepp Kuss return as Vingegaard's most trusted lieutenants, the pair who have shepherded him through the decisive cols of recent editions. Jorgenson, fresh from another strong spring, will be expected to follow the early selections, while Kuss remains the man Vingegaard wants beside him when the road tilts skyward above 2,000 metres.
The complexion of the squad has been forced to change, however. The absence of Wout van Aert, ruled out after an infected elbow wound ended his build-up, has left a hole that Visma cannot simply paper over. The Belgian's blend of sprinting, breakaway threat and brute force on the front had been a fixture of the team's Tour plans for nearly a decade, and replacing that versatility has dominated the team's selection debate for weeks.
Their answer is twofold. Edoardo Affini and Victor Campenaerts bring time-trial horsepower and rouleur strength for the flat and the opening team time trial in Barcelona, while Per Strand Hagenes — one of the most exciting young engines in the peloton — earns a debut Tour ride after Christophe Laporte's own injury setback. Bruno Armirail, the freshly crowned French time-trial champion, completes the engine room.
The genuine surprise is Davide Piganzoli. The young Italian, a revelation at the Giro d'Italia and a winner at the Route d'Occitanie, was not on most pre-race lists, but his climbing legs and willingness to bury himself in the valleys earned him the final spot. Visma are betting that a fresh, ambitious mountain domestique can offer something different in the third week, when attrition usually decides the yellow jersey.
It is a selection that has not been without controversy at home, with critics noting the absence of any Dutch rider in the line-up — a pointed talking point for a team with deep roots in the Netherlands. Sporting logic, though, has clearly trumped sentiment. Every name on the sheet has been chosen for a specific job on a specific kind of terrain.
The questions now are tactical rather than personnel. Without Van Aert's firepower to control the flat stages and police the breakaways, can Visma still dictate terms in the opening week? And with a climbing-heavy support cast, will Vingegaard have the numbers to isolate Pogacar before the summit finishes that this route saves for its closing act? The team time trial in Barcelona on 4 July will offer the first answer.
Vingegaard himself struck a calm, familiar note. The Dane, who has made a habit of peaking precisely when it matters, insisted his form was building on schedule and that the squad around him was "exactly the group I trust." On a route that rewards patience and punishes the impatient, that trust may yet prove the team's most valuable asset.