Belgian cycling hope Jarno Widar is learning the harsh laws of cycling in first WorldTour season

Expectations were high, but Jarno Widar has only now really brought his cycling season to life at the Tour of Switzerland. The 20-year-old Belgian of Lotto-Intermarché had been struggling with his body throughout the spring, but sounded fairly upbeat ahead of the Tour de Suisse.

As winner of the Giro NextGen in 2024 and European under-23 champion in 2025, Widar finally made the long-awaited move to the WorldTour over the winter. At the team presentation in December, there was immediately a lot of interest in the young climber.

At the time he tried to keep the pressure at bay, although Lotto-Intermarché initially put him straight into big WorldTour races. “If I had wanted to do 1.1 races, I might as well have stayed in the under-23s,” he said firmly.

Widar started well with fourth place in the Figueira Champions Classic and also showed strength uphill in the Tour of the Algarve. After that, things went off the rails, although it began with a virus in the French one-day races that was not yet too serious.

A training crash proved much more serious. Widar suffered a knee injury and, after March, had to miss all races in April as well. In the end it lasted so long that he only returned in June in the Tour of Switzerland.

Before the Tour de Suisse, Widar had already sounded upbeat in a press release. “It was about time I was allowed to race again, it has been long enough.” Speaking about the injury, he said: “Of course, at first you curse, but setbacks are simply part of the sport.”

That was also the message he gave IDL Pro Cycling in Sondrio, where the Tour of Switzerland opened on Tuesday and Wednesday. “It took a long time before we knew what we were going to do with my knee. I was off the bike for four weeks, but I have now also been training again for a month. I feel pretty good, so I’m happy to be back.”

“In the end, you can only focus on the things you can control. I wanted to recover as quickly as possible, and resting was very important in that. Then you have to switch the focus to the next races, and from the moment I could train again, I went at it fully.”

That should lead to a very strong Widar in the second half of 2026. “I’m definitely not at my top level yet, but I do feel really good in training. The power is maybe not my best ever yet, but I can’t complain. The numbers are better than at the start of this season.”

“I’m going on altitude training in July and then I’ll pick up my old programme again, with the Clásica San Sebastián, the Tour of Burgos and the Vuelta a España. Here in the Tour of Switzerland I want to give the best of myself, whatever result that brings. We’ll see, I do have confidence.”

On Day 1, Widar finished 118th, 21 minutes behind the winner.