Visma | Lease a Bike sees favorable Tour route for Vingegaard, but stays cautious about ambitions

“Overall the route looks nice,” Niermann begins. “Of course we will have to analyse it further and dive into each stage, but there are defenitly a lot of mountains, which is good,,” he says, referring to the high-altitude capabilities of his team leader and two-time Tour winner Vingegaard.

It was already known that the 2026 Tour de France will start in Barcelona, Spain. On the first day, the teams with classification ambitions will immediately face a significant challenge. “We start the race with a team time trial, and we always put focus on those, so that’s a good opportunity to go for the stage win and also hopefully win a little time,” says Niermann, optimistic about Visma | LaB's chances in the team time trial.

The most striking feature of the Tour route is the double finish on the iconic Alpe d'Huez. The climb, also known as the ‘Dutch mountain’, will be featured for the first time in stage nineteen. In the following stage, the riders will have to climb Alpe d'Huez from a different side: the Col de Sarenne (12.8 km at 7.3 percent).

Visma Lease a Bike team manager Richard Plugge expressed his enthusiasm about the double finish on the legendary mountain to IDLProCycling.com. “Alpe d’Huez is always beautiful, and the route via the Col de Sarenne is very scenic. And even tougher, I think. I like that. It’s going to be a brutal stage anyway, which is cool. Especially with the Sarenne.”

So obviously, the sting in the tail of the upcoming Tour de France is in the final stages, Niermann acknowledges. "The mountains are spread out over the course, but it’s still quite backloaded with a hard last week. It looks like stage 20 will be the big queen stage of the race with multiple long climbs, so hopefully the fight for the yellow jersey will still be on by then.“

Although there will be two finishes on Alpe d'Huez, Niermann believes that the two stages will be very different. He expects a clear difference in the race's course. “Croix de Fer and Galibier are beautiful but really hard. Alpe d’Huez is indeed also a very iconic climb, but stage 19 will be more explosive with a big showdown there, as there are no major climbs before.”

All in all, the Tour presentation revealed few big surprises for Niermann. “The Tour de France is always a hard a race, and next year will be the same.” Normally, Visma | Lease a Bike will make another attempt at the overall victory in 2026 with Vingegaard. “It could suit Jonas well, but again, we have to look further into the stages,” Niermann concludes cautiously.