{"id":204545,"date":"2026-01-14T12:36:26","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T12:36:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=204545"},"modified":"2026-01-14T12:36:26","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T12:36:26","slug":"visma-lease-bike-targets-grand-tours-and-classics-to-get-back-on-top","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2026\/01\/14\/visma-lease-bike-targets-grand-tours-and-classics-to-get-back-on-top\/","title":{"rendered":"Visma\u2013Lease Bike Targets Grand Tours and Classics to Get Back on Top"},"content":{"rendered":"

After Jumbo-Visma won all three Grand Tours in 2023, still the only team to have accomplished that feat, the two years after that were letdowns for its successor, Visma\u2013Lease a Bike, primarily due to the injuries suffered by its two superstars, Jonas Vingegaard and Wout van Aert. Last year was an improvement, with 40 wins, including two Grand Tours (but not its main goal, the Tour de France) and Wout van Aert\u2019s remarkable victory in the final stage of the Tour, when he out-climbed and then outlasted yellow jersey winner Tadej Poga\u010dar.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

That victory was much needed as Poga\u010dar\u2019s UAE Team Emirates\u2013XRG has supplanted Vingegaard et al. as cycling\u2019s best team, and by a large margin. So 2026 should be the year in which Visma\u2013Lease a Bike looks to get some of its mojo back and challenge the undisputed heavyweight champ for the title. At least, that\u2019s the goal. And, as usual, the focus will be on Vingegaard, who has won the Tour twice and the Vuelta last year \u2013 and needs only the Giro d\u2019Italia to complete the Grand Tour \u201ctrilogy,\u201d an achievement not yet on Poga\u010dar\u2019s CV.<\/p>\n

Going for the trilogy \u2013 and the double<\/strong><\/h2>\n

That is why he is riding in the Giro for the first time in his career, according to the team program set out in press releases on its website<\/a>. \u201cI have been thinking about riding the Giro for a while now,\u201d Vingegaard is quoted as saying<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s one of the biggest races on the calendar, and it\u2019s also one I have never done before. I really want to experience it, and now feels like the perfect moment. I would love to add the pink jersey to my collection.\u201d<\/p>\n

In going for the \u201ctrilogy,\u201d he\u2019ll be supported by some old and new hands: Sepp Kuss, Davide Piganzoli, Bart Lemmen, and Wilco Kelderman in the mountains; Victor Campenaerts and Edoardo Affini on the flats; and newcomer Timo Kielich wherever he\u2019s needed. His main rival in the race will be Poga\u010dar\u2019s former Grand Tour lieutenant Jo\u00e3o Almeida, so it won\u2019t be a ride in the park.<\/p>\n

But, as team Head of Racing Grischa Niermann noted, the team\u2019s primary goal has not been changed. \u201cOur biggest goal every year is to win the Tour de France,\u201d he said. \u201cIn addition, we want to win the Giro, win a cycling monument, and aim for the highest possible in the Vuelta.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vingegaard is Visma\u2019s only rider able to challenge Poga\u010dar in the Tour, which means that the team sees him going for the double, which the UAE superstar achieved in 2024. Can he do it? Niermann certainly believes he is. \u201cApart from the fact that he has always wanted to do the Giro,\u201d he said, \u201cwe are convinced that racing the Giro will benefit his level in the Tour. Of course, we are aiming to win the Giro, but the Tour remains our main objective.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jonas<\/a>
Vingegaard is Visma\u2019s only rider able to challenge Poga\u010dar in the Tour. \u00a9 Profimedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Vingegaard\u2019s fitness in 2024 and 2025 was much affected by the disastrous crash he suffered in the Itzulia Basque Country in early April 2024. It sometimes takes years to recover from the kind of injuries he sustained in that accident, and the 29-year-old Dane confirmed this at the end of last year, saying on social media<\/a> after riding in the Saidama Criterium in November, \u201cYou never really know when you have a bad crash like that if you will get back to the same level you had before. It\u2019s only by the end of this year that I can see that I\u2019m able to push in the same way that I was before my crash.\u201d<\/p>\n

An ambitious schedule for van Aert<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Van Aert, the team\u2019s other leader, will ride the spring Classics, support Vingegaard in the Tour, while also going for a few stage wins, and ride in the Vuelta. \u201cIn the spring, I want to be there from Omloop Het Nieuwsblad all the way through to Roubaix. I want to show myself everywhere and seize every opportunity that comes my way,\u201d he said<\/a>. \u201cUnlike recent seasons, I\u2019ll be back on the start line of the Italian classics, Strade Bianche and Milan\u2013San Remo\u2026 I consider Strade Bianche and Milan\u2013San Remo to be among the most beautiful races of the season, so I definitely don\u2019t want to miss them in 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 31-year-old Belgian suffered a severe knee injury in the 2024 Vuelta and was not really himself until that already legendary victory in the Tour. In the Classics, he will again be facing Poga\u010dar as well as his longtime nemesis Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), so it will be a difficult few months, especially as he crashed in the snow at the Exact Cross in Mol on January 2, sustaining a\u00a0small fracture\u00a0and sprain of his ankle. He has since had successful surgery and returned to outdoor training only nine days later and will likely suffer no after-effects.<\/p>\n

Van Aert is also pencilled in for a return to the Vuelta, accompanied by 20-year-old Matthew Brennan, who looks like a potential star but has not yet found his speciality. It will be his first Grand Tour, and the focus will be on stage wins. As Niermann put it, \u201cHe’s still young, so we have to be patient with him. If everything goes according to plan, he will ride major races this year, such as Milan\u2013San Remo, the Tour of Flanders, and the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a. He will mainly go there to learn; we do not expect him to immediately race for results.\u201d<\/p>\n

The invaluable Matteo Jorgenson will again be part of Vingegaard\u2019s support in the Tour, but will ride the Tour de Suisse as team leader. \u201cThe Tour is always the highlight of my season,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ll do everything I can to be in top form and to support Jonas Vingegaard as best as possible. Before that, I\u2019ll start in the Tour de Suisse. It\u2019s an ideal opportunity to race as a leader for the general classification once again, something that really motivates me.\u201d He is also riding the Classics, with Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge a targeted race. \u201cI\u2019m setting the bar high, and that makes it a great challenge,\u201d he said, a sentence that can be applied to his team as well.<\/p>\n

The team will certainly feel the loss of Giro winner Simon Yates, who abruptly retired a week ago. But they have signed some strong new riders for this season, such as the talented French puncheur Louis Barr\u00e9, who will be with van Aert in the Classics, the strong veteran Bruno Armirail, Kielich and Piganzoli. With the veteran domestiques Kuss, Christophe Laporte, and the apparently indefatigable 34-year-old Campenaerts, Visma\u2013Lease a Bike may have the firepower to compete with the Poga\u010dar juggernaut.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After Jumbo-Visma won all three Grand Tours in 2023, still the only team to have accomplished that feat, the two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":204547,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[329],"tags":[5450,3415,7571,831],"global-categories":[3366],"class_list":["post-204545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-road-cycling","tag-jonas-vingegaard","tag-tadej-pogacar","tag-visma-lease-a-bike","tag-wout-van-aert","global-categories-cycling"],"yoast_head":"\nVisma\u2013Lease Bike Targets Grand Tours and Classics in 2026<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"After Jumbo-Visma won all three Grand Tours in 2023, still the only team to have accomplished that feat, the two years after that were letdowns for its\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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