Affini on Visma’s new Italian arrivals — and the sobering Tour takeaway: "It's like the Champions' League"

Visma | Lease a Bike may not have made the flashiest transfer headlines, but three Italians are arriving for 2026: Pietro Mattio, Davide Piganzoli and Filippo Fiorelli. For Edoardo Affini, it means he’s no longer the only Italian voice in the Dutch squad — though he insists that won’t change much about how the team makes its choices.

Visma | Lease a Bike doesn't have a vast history regarding italian riders, Affini knows. "Before me there was only Battaglin," he tells Bici.Pro. Enrico Battaglin rode for LottoNL-Jumbo between 2016 and 2018, where he managed to win a stage of the Giro d'Italia. "Next year there will be four of us." It's a sudden development for the Dutch squad.

Affini stresses that national ties won’t trump performance considerations. "Honestly, it doesn’t affect me much, other than it being nice to speak my language now and then if we’re in the same race. At our level it can be pleasant to have a compatriot, but decisions are taken by the team based on many other factors"

Piganzoli is 24, while Fiorelli 30, brings a little more experience. Affini expects both to benefit from Visma’s processes and resources. “I don’t know the full story at Polti and Bardiani. I’m not sure what they’re used to, but I think Fiorelli and Piganzoli will make a huge step forward in terms of attention to detail and nutrition, which is certainly a very important aspect here.”

Room for personal results will be limited at first, he adds, given the squad’s clear hierarchy. "“I’m thinking especially of Piganzoli: if he wants to improve as a GC rider, maybe first as important support for Jonas or Simon. The overall performance environment here is really optimized.”

The difference in professionalism will be big for his new teammates, Affini says, but Visma itself has also evolved rapidly in recent seasons. “When I arrived in 2021, we were still on the rise. You could say 2022 and 2023 were the most productive years. In 2025 we won two of the three Grand Tours and finished second in the third, which doesn’t seem so bad to me.”

Not a bad result at all, indeed. Yet the Tour de France remains the elephant in the room. Where Visma dominated in 2022 and 2023, Tadej Pogačar and UAE Team Emirates‑XRG have had the upper hand more recently — including in 2025, when Pogačar proved much too strong for Jonas Vingegaard.

“It’s true that the biggest sponsors go after the Tour, because it gets the most media attention, like the Champions League. The Giro, the Vuelta and the Classics are important, but the Tour is just more. And we tried to win the Tour, but Tadej and his team were better than us,” Affini concludes.