Visma | Lease a Bike's 2026 Tour de France team is settled; can it stand up to Pogačar and UAE?

Visma | Lease a Bike became the first team to announce its eight-rider roster for the Tour de France on Tuesday afternoon. The Dutch team hopes to contend for the yellow jersey with Jonas Vingegaard. The eighth spot on the team remained unclear after Wout van Aert dropped out, but it will now be filled by Davide Piganzoli.

Visma | Lease a Bike organized a full-fledged live show on Tuesday afternoon to announce the roster for this year’s Tour de France. “With this YouTube preview show, we wanted to bring our fans closer to the team and give them a unique behind-the-scenes look as we work toward the biggest race on the cycling calendar. And it allows us to share the stories behind our riders and our preparations,” explained Jasper Saeijs, Chief Business Officer.

Ultimately, of course, it all came down to the eight riders who will take the start in Barcelona on July 4 for the team time trial. Six of them were already—as good as—certain. Vingegaard, of course, but also Sepp Kuss and Victor Campenaerts, who had already supported him in the Giro d’Italia. In addition, Bruno Armirail, Edoardo Affini, and Matteo Jorgenson had known for quite some time that their spots were secure.

The biggest "question marks" for outsiders arose after Christophe Laporte and Wout van Aert were forced to withdraw. The Frenchman tore his quadriceps in a crash during training, but it had already become clear during the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes that Per Strand Hagenes would take his place. The 22-year-old Norwegian has been considered a major talent for years and really broke through this spring, but has yet to ride a Grand Tour.

The eighth place was reserved for Van Aert at all times, as he had already helped Vingegaard secure two victories in the Tour de France. However, the Belgian was forced to withdraw from the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes—despite winning a stage—due to elbow pain following a crash before that race. Once back in Belgium, his condition worsened, and it became clear that participating in the Tour would not be possible.

Visma | Lease a Bike has had to deal with setbacks like this quite often in recent years. For example, Simon Yates was actually slated to be Vingegaard’s main support rider at the start of the season, but he suddenly retired from cycling. Affini—who was originally supposed to ride the Giro—was then moved to the Tour.

Van Aert’s replacement is Davide Piganzoli, which is a bit of a surprise. The young Italian joined the team last winter from the small Polti-VisitMalta squad, but made a very strong impression in the Giro d'Italia. Just last weekend, he won the Route d'Occitanie, a smaller French stage race.

In the Tour de France, Piganzoli will join the team as Vingegaard’s high-mountain support rider, alongside Americans Jorgenson and Kuss. Wilco Kelderman, Ben Tulett, Bart Lemmen, and Jorgen Nordhagen could also have filled that spot in theory, but the team ultimately chose the 23-year-old Piganzoli.