Visma | Lease a Bike's joker cards ready for starring role behind (or ahead of?) Van Aert

Visma | Lease a Bike have big ambitions for Paris-Roubaix, but those took a hit with the news that a technical tyre pressure innovation was banned by the UCI. How will the Dutch team ensure it gets as many riders as possible into the finale, including Wout van Aert? IDL Pro Cycling spoke on Saturday to two of his most important helpers.

That Van Aert has been delivering this spring is beyond doubt. In the hilly Classics, the Belgian perhaps still fell just short. But at Paris-Roubaix, a fierce battle with Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Premier Tech) and Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) is expected. At Visma | Lease a Bike, however, they are looking beyond Van Aert alone.

Performance coach Mathieu Heijboer named Per Strand Hagenes and Christophe Laporte on the preview episode of the In De Waaier podcast, saying both could also win in his view. "We want to win with Visma, but we do think Wout is going to play an important role in that," the Dutchman said.

Laporte has bounced back in 2026 after a 2025 plagued by injuries. He won a stage at the Ruta del Sol and finished in the top ten in five of the seven Flemish Classics he started. In Flanders Fields (third) and Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (fourth) were his best results, but he also came ninth in a gruelling Tour of Flanders.

Plenty of reason for confidence from the 33-year-old Frenchman, who nonetheless refused to speak of a role as shadow leader. "Paris-Roubaix is a race where a lot can happen. Of course I'm a domestique for Wout, but you stand the best chance if you have multiple cards to play at the front. That way we can make other teams do the work."

"My priority is to see whether a result is possible, because we have a strong squad," Laporte said. "Paris-Roubaix is always different, because you ride with different equipment and a number of things need to be tested. We did a big reconnaissance on Thursday, but it remains a bike race. It does bring a bit more stress, though."

The fight for victory will have to come entirely from the legs of the Visma | Lease a Bike riders. The yellow-and-black team will not have the Gravaa pump system, which allowed tyre pressure to be adjusted from the bike while riding. The UCI banned the innovation two weeks before Paris-Roubaix, which raises the question: how big is the disadvantage?

Hagenes shrugged it off. "It would have been nice if we could have used it, but if we can't, we can't. We've ridden without the system before, so it's not as if we don't know how that works. It's a shame, but not a big problem. The bike might even be a bit lighter, because the Gravaa system does add some weight. But otherwise the bike is the same."

The 22-year-old Norwegian has also been flying this spring and is, alongside Laporte, the second joker card behind Van Aert. "I hope I can ride the finale, but let's see if that's possible. I've shown good legs in recent races, so it should be doable. I'm hoping for something extra, of course, although we'll decide during the race how we're going to play it."