Can Alberto Contador's protégé become Visma's trump card in battle against Pogacar?
CyclingSaturday, 15 November 2025 at 01:00
Since 2025 road season ended, no one has ever doubted that Visma | Lease a Bike will once again shift its focus on Grand tours in 2026. Having won each of the Grand Tours twice since 2022, there's no wonder that the team led by Richard Plugge strives for more. And while in 2025, they have won both Giro and Vuelta, the elusive Grande Boucle was outside of their reach as Jonas Vingegaard could not bring world champion Tadej Pogacar to his knees for second year in a row.
The six most recent Tour de France editions have not seen other winner than Pogacar and Vingegaard, but the current score is 4:2 in favor of the Slovenian who was defeated in 2022 and 2023, but snatched back the throne from his arch-rival in 2024, before going back-to-back this summer. With UAE continuously adding firepower to their already impressive mountain team, there was no choice left to Visma but to look for new key players as well.
That's how they came along one of the most promising young Italian climbers: Davide Piganzoli.
The Italian, after having trained for the last 6 years in Alberto Contador's Polti, finally makes the definitive leap to the World Tour. At 23 years old, Piganzoli lands in one of the best teams in the world with very clear plans of supporting the team's top climbers, including Jonas Vingegaard.
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In the last edition of the race, Visma already brought a great team to the Grande Boucle. Vingegaard had Sepp Kuss, Matteo Jorgenson, '25 Giro winner Simon Yates, Victor Campenaerts and Wout van Aert at his disposal. However in the decisive moments, only Kuss, Jorgenson and Yates are the top-top climbers. And as the trio were unable to put Pogacar under any pressure, it became clear that new energy was needed.
The 2026 Tour de France will be a very mountainous edition, and a very tough one. The elevation gain that the peloton will face in the second half of the race should heavily favor Vingegaard whose best weapon against Pogacar seems to be the ability to gradually improve over the three weeks. That's why the more climbers Visma | Lease a Bike brings as Jonas Vingegaard's assistants, the better.
And Davide Piganzoli has the qualities needed to become his main right-hand man.
Davide Piganzoli, Visma | Lease a Bike signing for 2026
Results support Piganzoli
Why Davide Piganzoli has it all to be one of Visma | Lease a Bike's great climbers in both the short and long term?
Throughout his time with Alberto Contador's Polti, the Italian has taken advantage of opportunities almost better than anyone else. And his results over the past few years have shown that his talent is set to make a difference in the WorldTour.
He already has 2 wins as a pro, when he took the overall classification of the Tour of Antalya 2024, including the queen stage of the race. But his name has been gaining weight, to the point of signing for Visma to be Jonas Vingegaard's domestique, thanks to other results such as the following:
- 13th overall in the Giro d'Italia 2024, just shy of the top 10 in his Grand Tour debut, and with an invited team.
- 14th in the overall classification of the Giro d'Italia 2025, his second participation with Polti in a grand tour.
- 2nd in the general classification of O Gran Camiño 2025.
- 2nd in the general classification of the Route de l'Occitanie 2025.
- 3rd in the Giro dell'Emilia 2024.
- Top 3 in the overall classification of the Tour de l'Avenir 2023.
- Top 3 in the GP Industria & Argianato 2025.
There is no doubt: Davide Piganzoli is a pure climber, who signs for Visma in order to continue growing and racing many more grand tours than he could with Contador's Polti. However, it should also be noted that the level and demands will not be the same. The Italian goes from a ProTeam to one of the two biggest teams in the World Tour, and to be Vingegaard's assistant.
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