Former pro Breukink blames 'Seixas-mania' and letting Niermann join rivals for Visma's Tour de France woes
CyclingWednesday, 15 July 2026 at 10:51
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Follow us on GoogleWith the first week behind them, the Tour de France kicked off immediately with a challenging stage. Winding through the Cantal Mountains, it finished at Le Lioran, where Jonas Vingegaard defeated Tadej Pogacar two years ago. Pogačar duly took his revenge in 2026. Something ex-pro Erik Breukink had already predicted. He’s not particularly pleased with how Visma | Lease a Bike is handling this Tour. He cites, among other things, the team time trial, Grischa Niermann’s departure, and the rumors surrounding Paul Seixas.
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Visma | Lease a Bike got off to a perfect start in the Tour de France. The team won the team time trial in Barcelona, with Vingegaard immediately claiming the yellow jersey. UAE Team Emirates-XRG finished third, already trailing by twelve seconds. The victory was celebrated exuberantly, and the emotions were clearly visible. But Breukink wasn’t really impressed.
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"Maybe it’s because I lived through the Peter Post era. He would have said, ‘Winning a stage is nice, but we’ve only just gotten started and we’re not going to go overboard here. Tomorrow is another day.’ Perhaps this understated pragmatism was the other extreme when it came to celebrating a victory. But it did keep you grounded,” he explains in his column for De Telegraaf.
Moreover, the lead they had built up vanished like snow in the sun, especially when Pogacar accelerated on the Col du Tourmalet and put Vingegaard more than 2.30 minutes behind. This is indicative of the shift in fortunes between the two top teams, says Breukink. “Right now, Pogacar and his team have things very well organised, while at Visma | Lease a Bike, things look a lot less promising than in recent years.”
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Breukink on Niermann: 'We should have matched Lidl-Trek's offer'
Still, the Dutch former pro doesn’t want to jump to conclusions just yet. “It may seem like a hopeless mission, but make no mistake. The Tour de France is a brutal beast. The scorching heat of the past few days is going to claim many more victims. What’s more, the danger of an unfortunate crash lurks around every corner. And, of course, the third grueling week is still ahead. Tadej Pogacar’s fifth Tour victory is in the making, but at the same time, it’s far from a sure thing.”
However, it’s clear to everyone that things aren’t looking great. The world champion has been virtually unbeatable for three years in a row, and in this Tour de France as well, it seems like an impossible task for Visma | Lease a Bike to dethrone him. On top of that, there were quite a few things going on behind the scenes with the Dutch team that may also have had an impact.
Breukink mentions Grischa Niermann’s departure. The nearly indispensable German chose to leave Lidl-Trek—something the Dutch team, according to the former cyclist, should never have allowed to happen. “For Vingegaard, he has always been an important confidant during his two Tour victories, in 2022 and 2023. It’s very strange that they let him go. In my opinion, they should have matched Lidl-Trek’s financial offer.”
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Seixas to Visma? 'It came across as very strange,' says Breukink
Breukink also isn’t happy that Visma | Lease a Bike has been open about its interest in Paul Seixas. “Announcing during the Tour that Richard Plugge, the boss of Visma | Lease a Bike, is after the 19-year-old French prodigy Seixas came across as very strange. How does this affect your team—and especially your team leader in the Tour? Vingegaard won’t say, but it doesn’t exactly inspire a lot of confidence in him.”
French President Emmanuel Macron has already weighed in on the discussion and hopes that Seixas will remain with Decathlon CMA CGM. The third-place finisher in the 1990 Tour de France agrees. “That’s what’s best for cycling. If Seixas leaves Decathlon, it will cause major problems for that team.”
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Tom van der Salm (27) comes from the charming town of Zeilberg (Deurne) in the Netherlands and has been working as editor-in-chief & journalist at IDL Pro Cycling's parent site, In de Leiderstrui, since 2019. He travels with the peloton from the Tour de France to the AlUla Tour and from the World Championships in Rwanda or Canada to the Zilvermeercross in Mol. In his spare time he enjoys playing football, mountain biking, running, walking with his Labrador/Stabyhoun, investing, holidays, (specialty) beers, reading, cooking and watching sports & documentaries!
Contact: [email protected]
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Latest Comments
- - Uno-X laughing it off was class, but bad food for staff is not a joke. Riders get team chefs, sure, but the staff are the engine. Feed them properly and give them windows that open ffs. Vamos, Pogacar still sleeping well though—title vibes.raceready715-07-2026
- - “Greatest race in the world” and you’ve got rusty rooms and mould under beds? Come on. Even a 2-star can be clean. Feels like ASO hid behind geography instead of enforcing hygiene standards. Do better.jennifer1915-07-2026
- - Quick question: if the organizers evenly distribute high-rated hotels over four weeks, how is that audited? Is there a public matrix per team, or is it all internal? Transparency would kill a lot of this debate.lindae15-07-2026
- - Koen Pelgrim nails it: basics over bling. Teams bringing AC units, dehumidifiers, and mattresses has become standard ops. Still, if riders are sleeping on balconies because of noise, something’s off in the setup.michael5415-07-2026
- - Fair points on UCI rules and hotel allocation. Cantal was always going to be thin on options. Level playing field matters more than five-star fluff, but mould and cockroaches? That’s unacceptable for staff and riders. ASO needs stricter minimum standards.cadencekingm15-07-2026
- - Grande campeón or not, Pog is in his head right now. But the Tour isn’t won on one off-day. Keep the faith. Vamos Jonas!velodromevirtuoso115-07-2026
- - Armstrong acting like nuance doesn’t exist is rich. You can be fully committed and still push back on burnout. The article is solid, but maybe over-indexes on that slow-mo finish clip—context matters: crosswinds, positioning, and that last kicker caught several riders out.raceready715-07-2026
- - Can someone explain why limiting training camps would help? I thought altitude was crucial for GC guys. Is this more about mental fatigue than pure fitness?cyclechamp4515-07-2026
- - I don’t buy Wiggins’ “he won’t finish” line. He had one bad day on Tourmalet and leaked a handful of seconds on StageVisma have clearly altered his load with fewer altitude camps; this is what periodisation risk looks like. Let’s see the next summit finish before writing the obit.julien15-07-2026
- - Really thoughtful piece. You can see the shift in Jonas’s cadence and posture since Stage 6—he’s not dancing on the pedals like last July. The 12s on the run-in today weren’t about watts, they were about body language.jeremya15-07-2026
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