Visma | Lease a Bike on their Giro plan for Piganzoli — talent who shared l'Avenir podium with Del Toro and Pellizzari

Visma | Lease a Bike begin the Giro d'Italia on Friday with overall victory for Jonas Vingegaard as their one and only goal — but in the background they are also quietly developing a number of talented riders. Alongside the more experienced names in the squad, new signings Timo Kielich, Tim Rex and Davide Piganzoli have all been brought along. In the mountains, it is Piganzoli in particular who will play a key role.

Piganzoli joined last winter from Polti VisitMalta, where he rode the Giro d'Italia in each of the previous two seasons, finishing 13th and 14th. Before that, he had already made a strong impression as an under-23 rider, finishing fifth and third in the Tour de l'Avenir.

In 2023, he shared the podium at that race with winner Isaac del Toro and Giulio Pellizzari — two riders of his generation who by 2026 are already counted among the leading contenders for Grand Tour glory.

The three also know each other well from San Marino. After Del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Pellizzari (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), Piganzoli was the third of the trio to make the step up to a major WorldTour team.

"The comparison with Pellizzari is one that does hold up — moving through a smaller Italian team to the WorldTour," analyses Marc Reef, Visma | Lease a Bike's sports director for the Giro. "Pellizzari went from Bardiani to Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe, and now Davide has taken the same route via Polti to us."

"But everyone follows their own path, of course," Reef adds. "Del Toro made the jump directly to UAE. But Davide has already shown some really beautiful things, certainly at his previous team."

Wilco Kelderman is one of the experienced hands in the Visma | Lease a Bike Giro squad, and alongside Victor Campenaerts, Sepp Kuss and Bart Lemmen will be one of the riders setting the tempo for Vingegaard and company. "Davide is very enthusiastic, and the same goes for Tim Rex, who is still a neo-pro. Going on the road with guys like that is a real pleasure."

"Davide is a very friendly guy who fits into the group really well. In this Giro, he is one of the riders who needs to support Jonas in the mountains as well as possible," explains Reef. "But we are holding no one back. We really only have one goal, and that is to win the race overall with Jonas."

"He's incredibly keen to learn and simply outstanding — we shouldn't shy away from saying that," says Kelderman. "He could easily ride a top ten in the Giro. He's maybe just a step below Sepp, but even that role is hugely important."

Kelderman explains how the eight riders plan to achieve that goal together. "With Tim Rex and Timo Kielich, we have two men for the flat stages. Myself, Victor and Bart sit in a similar bracket — riders who can stay with the best for a while in the mountains and also do their work on the flat," he explains. "Davide and Sepp need to stay with the front group deep into the mountain stages and act as lead-out for Jonas."

"The Giro d'Italia is often unpredictable, so we cannot afford to underestimate anything or anyone," says Reef, who guided the race to victory with Simon Yates last year. "Jonas starts as the outright favourite, and the overall win is absolutely our goal. We have a strong selection to chase that down. I feel a huge amount of enthusiasm and motivation from Jonas and the rest of the team."