The 2026 injury curse
For starters, Vingegaard and van Aert are injured again, though not as seriously. The Belgian broke an ankle in a cyclocross race in December, forcing him to cancel the rest of his ‘cross races and suspend his training. However, he is reportedly training “as usual”, much sooner than anticipated, and will presumably not skip any of the Spring Classics he has targeted, including his main targets, the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, and Milan-Sanremo.
Van Aert is currently at an altitude training camp in Sierra Nevada, Spain, where he is performing long endurance rides (up to six hours) and nearly all interval work. However, he noted that he cannot yet perform “full-steam sprints” or maximal efforts on the pedals and that he has discomfort while walking.
As for Vingegaard, he suffered undisclosed injuries on January 26 while trying to shake an amateur rider on a tricky descent near Malaga, Spain. While Visma-Lease a Bike officially stated he did not sustain any “serious” injuries, eyewitnesses and reports from the scene indicated that Vingegaard had a “bloodied face”, with one account specifying bleeding in two places after he reportedly hit a guardrail or dragged his face along the ground.
To make matters worse, not long afterwards, the two-time Tour de France winner came down with an unspecified illness, which – in combination with the crash – forced him to cancel his 2026 debut at the UAE Tour, which starts on February 16. His next scheduled appearance on the road is at the Volta a Catalunya, starting on March 23, 2026.
“I was really looking forward to returning to the UAE Tour and am therefore disappointed that we have had to make this decision,” he wrote on the team’s website. “However, the combination of the crash and subsequent illness made it necessary. It is better to fully recover first so that I can then focus on my next goals.”
But that’s not all. Visma’s longtime loyal mountain domestique, and winner of the 2023 Vuelta, Sepp Kuss, fell ill during the Tour of Oman and had to drop out of the race. And that’s not all; in fact, that’s the least of it.
The 2026 defection curse
The year began with the high-profile retirement of Simon Yates, who kicked off the team’s comeback last year by winning the Giro d’Italia. His announcement was totally unexpected and came after he’d already been training with the team. Yates said that he had been considering retirement for a “long time”and felt he no longer had the “fire” to continue competing at the highest level. He expressed a desire to spend more time with his family, noting that the constant travel and absences required by the sport were no longer sustainable.
However, according to EliteWheels, he was not happy riding as a domestique in the Tour de France and, worse, “sources claim Yates was denied requests for a specialised wheel setup in favour of the team’s standardised gear.” Without named sources, such reports are little more than rumours. But where there’s smoke… In any case, the team had counted on Yates to do some heavy lifting for Vingegaard in the Giro and the Tour.
But that’s not the end of it either. Arguably, the worst setback to hit Visma so far is the recent announcement by its performance coach, Tim Heemskerk, to leave the team. Heemskerk, who had been with Visma for eight years, was more than just a performance coach; he was Vingegaard’s personal coach, the architect of his Grand Tour triumphs, and his confidante.
“Over the past period, I have noticed that I was struggling to continue applying my creativity and passion, which are important to me in my work as a coach,” Heemskerk explained on the team’s website. “That was the moment for me to be honest with myself and with the team. I look back with pride on the growth of the team, myself, and the riders, including, of course, Jonas.”
Reading just a little between the lines, one could interpret the statement to suggest that he was prevented from “applying [his] creativity and passion.” Heemskerk went on to say that he was “going to take some time for myself and think about my future.” In other words, he is not retiring, which means he could sign for another team, like Red Bull–BORA–Hansgrohe, tomorrow or next week – unless he signed an agreement with Visma not to do that this year.
But the immediate impact is on Vingegaard, who had a very close relationship with Heemskerk and was counting heavily on him (as well as Yates) to help him accomplish the big goals he has set this year: the Giro-Tour double. No name has yet been put forward by Visma as to who will replace Heemskerk. Whoever it is will have to not only gain the confidence of Visma’s Grand Tour star but also calm the uncertainty and sense of disruption that has struck the team so early in the year.
The first decision will be if Vingegaard will ride only two races before the Giro (now that the UAE Tour has been dropped) or do a third race – but which one? I wouldn’t want to be in his shoes. The only good thing about all these setbacks is that they all hit Visma–Lease a Bike at one time at the beginning of the season. They’ll have plenty of time to right the ship by the time the Tour kicks off – unless the curse strikes again.
