"Balance between Jonas and Wout" - Visma will support both leaders at the 2026 Tour de France
Cycling
Wout Van Aert is heading to the Tour de France to support Jonas Vingegaard, however he can also fight for his own results. And as shown this Thursday at the Tour Auvergne-Rhônes-Alpes, the Belgian is also back to his winning ways, earning that right.
A perfectly executed sprint by Visma
“He had already shown yesterday that he was fast. But again, we had to ride very hard behind the breakaway," team DS Maarten Wynants said in a post-race interview with In de Leiderstrui. But with the breakaway under control and caught well before the finish in Villars-les-Dombes, the win was up for grabs.
The final sprint was much less chaotic than a regular one, with the headwind and lack of tactical features not sparking the usual fight for positioning. But inside the final kilometer the speed was very high, with the Visma men up front, who kept Van Aert hidden from the wind and sudden accelerations.
“When they were on the front, I felt it would be very difficult to come past them. The wind was coming from the front left, so anyone trying to pass had to come around on the exposed side as well.” It ended up being the perfect set up, and the Belgian then had the legs to finish it off.
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Van Aert and Vingegaard's ambitions at the Tour de France
Team Visma | Lease a Bike go into the Tour with the goal of winning the yellow jersey with Jonas Vingegaard, but ultimately there will also be plenty stages where Van Aert can take the responsibility over chasing results.
“We will have to wait and see. The most important thing is to keep the balance between Jonas and Wout. If those goals do not conflict, then it is certainly possible.” Last year, the latter won on stage 21, taking a win in style at the Champs-Élysées.
“It is too early to say he will contest the flat sprints. With all respect to the riders here, the Tour will have a different level of sprinter. There will be riders who are naturally much faster," Wynants concluded.
Rúben SilvaEditor-in-Chief
A founding contributor to CyclingUpToDate since its launch in January 2022, Ruben Silva has played a central role in shaping the site’s editorial direction and long-term growth. Before joining the project, he built his experience through independent blogging at Echelons Hub and by producing race previews for Ciclismo Internacional, developing a strong analytical voice rooted in daily engagement with professional cycling.
Beyond editorial work, he has been closely involved in the expansion and coordination of CyclingUpToDate’s wider network, helping establish and support sister platforms across multiple languages. This includes ongoing collaboration with CiclismoAlDia (Spanish), CiclismoAtual (Portuguese), WielrennenUpToDate (Dutch), and RadsportAktuell (German), contributing to a shared editorial vision and consistent international coverage.
He also helps oversee editorial governance across the network, setting standards for accuracy and consistency and coordinating updates or corrections when needed.
Originally from the Porto metropolitan area in Portugal, he holds a bachelor’s degree in Geography. His path into cycling journalism was shaped not through formal media training, but through independent reporting, community engagement, and sustained on-the-ground involvement in the sport.
Over the course of his career, he has conducted approximately 100 interviews across road cycling and cyclocross, ranging from one-to-one conversations and online formats to press conferences and on-site pre- and post-race coverage. His interviews include leading riders, team managers, and prominent figures within cycling media: Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, Mathieu van der Poel, Primoz Roglic, Wout van Aert, Joao Almeida and Tom Pidcock; managers like Patrick Lefevere and Joxean Matxin; and YouTube personality Bryan Kennedy (BKXC)...
Within 18 months of launch, he helped grow CyclingUpToDate’s English-language platform into one of the most-read cycling news websites, built entirely from the ground up. As both a professional journalist and lifelong cycling enthusiast, his focus remains on delivering accurate, timely, and well-contextualized coverage.
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- It would likely be a very steep section of 4.1 km, not changing the average gradient considerably, with the climb remaining 10.1 km at 11.8%. It would reach 20% on the gravel. It would start 1.6 km in, and finish with 4.2 km left to climb (before the short final descent)
Rafionain-Glas02-11-2026 - Welcome to the off-season.
santiagobenites02-11-2026 - guillaume martin is wuite a surprise as a gc rider.Ketterechts02-11-2026
- Who cares what Bruyneel thinks. He and his best mate Lance, the biggest fraud in the history of sport, have no place commenting on anything but how to lie and cheat!whit2pet02-11-2026
- Eeesh!Lozza02-11-2026
- bravo! a rider likes jonas needs motivation and he needs to believe in being able to reach goals. he - like anybody else in the world - doesn't believe that he can win the tdf with pogi present. and what's it worth for when pogi is not there? second class victory only. he has checked all three grand tours, so what is left if not retire? the classics! go for it, jonas!Ketterechts02-11-2026
- i am sure that under the pretext of medical examination a lot worse has happened when they were under.abstractengineer02-11-2026
- dude, Lemond never even was in the same race as Armstrong. He throws all these aspersions on other American riders who might usurp his throne as the greatest ever American racer. He doesn't say a single thing about (foreign) dopers who he actually raced against. Biggest douchebag move ever. I used to revere that guy, now I despise him. His actions are so weird.fatsupermodel02-11-2026
- This is just stupid, You do what you are good at not what you are weak at. He has no results to speak of when he participated. Even Froome, Conatdor had very little. With Pogi there he wont win none of the classics. he is already 30+ with a few years left at the top. It takes years to get good at classics. Is that really worth the effort???abstractengineer02-11-2026
- Sure, little fella.awp02-11-2026
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