Campenaerts received wonderful compliment from Vingegaard and refutes Visma reproach: "You put your balls on the table"

The cycling world has seen an extremely interesting battle in recent years between Visma | Lease a Bike and UAE Team Emirates - XRG. The two teams dominate the biggest races and always put each other to the test. This is also seen by Victor Campenaerts, the Belgian who received a brilliant compliment from Jonas Vingegaard and refuted an important reproach.

That there is a rivalry between the two teams is obvious, because when asked by Domestique, Campenaerts responds firmly. "Yes, for sure, but I can also say we actually have a very good relationship. One of my better friends in and outside of cycling is Tim Wellens."

The two Belgians, who raced together at Lotto Soudal, know each other through and through. "He (Wellens, red.) is a little bit more of a winner himself than I am, but in the Tour, we do a similar job. And of course, we ride elbow to elbow, and we don’t give presents to each other in the race," Campenaerts also hints at the other side.

"So it's not that we're under each other's skin, but we are professional, and we want to win races," said the Visma rider, who was beaten from the breakaway by Wellens in the Tour de France this year. "We were even teasing each other in the breakaway a little bit. And he did a really smart move by attacking when I was a bit blocked at the other side of the road."

In the same Tour, and also in other important races, Campenaerts' team is sometimes accused of arrogance. This concerns, for example, the way of racing in the peloton. The Belgian refutes those accusations. "In no way do those accusations really come to us, and we don’t have the feeling that other riders aren’t respecting us."

"Cycling is a big boys' game," Campenaerts continued. "We're not asking politely to take the front, you just take the front, and it is what it is. You put your balls on the table, and in the end it’s the big boys riding on the front, and you don’t hit the front by coincidence," the Belgian is very adamant.

In this year's Tour, the rider from Hoboken was present as a servant to leader Jonas Vingegaard. That seems to be the case for the remaining years of his career as well. "I went to the Tour de France with only one goal and that was helping Jonas win the Tour de France. I would betray first the team, but also myself if now I say, 'Yeah, now I want to do my own thing again.'"

Yet the Dane was eventually defeated by Tadej Pogcar. "We can honestly say that Tadej was stronger this Tour de France than Jonas. But we tried whatever we know. We had to come up with surprises or unexpected initiatives to try and win the race."

Campenaerts could therefore count on a nice compliment from Vingegaard. "We were at the dining table yesterday, and he (Vingegaard, red.) emphasised really with a big underline how happy he is about my work. He said, 'I don't know my program for next year, but I know what your program will be because you're going to spend a lot of time with me.'"

Going for personal success is therefore out of the question for Vocsnor, but that does not bother him at all. "Of course, if I can win five stages in the Tour, I would be happy. But the difference between one and five is not that big. The difference between zero and one, that's a big difference. Winning in the Tour is forever."