“Everyone embraced the idea” – Visma’s AI secret weapon behind Jonas Vingegaard’s Tour de France yellow jersey revealed

Team Visma | Lease a Bike’s first yellow jersey of the 2026 Tour de France was built around a plan for when Jonas Vingegaard would not work.

Visma beat Netcompany INEOS by 7.33 seconds, UAE Team Emirates – XRG by 11.28 and Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe by 18.15 in Saturday’s opening team time trial in Barcelona.

Speaking to Sporza afterwards, head of performance Mathieu Heijboer said the winning pacing strategy had been shaped by computer modelling before a wheel turned in the race.

“We ran a lot of models through the computer,” Heijboer said. “AI, so to speak. That helped us determine the best pacing strategy with the riders we have.”

The key part of Visma’s strategy was not simply going all-in from the start. Vingegaard, Davide Piganzoli and Sepp Kuss were protected for the final climbs, while the bigger engines carried more of the flat work through Barcelona.

Heijboer said Visma’s modelling repeatedly pointed towards the same solution: keep the lightest riders fresher, trust the other five on the flatter roads, and avoid spending climbing power before Montjuic. “The models kept showing that we had to save our lightest riders and that on the flat we could rely on the other five riders,” Heijboer explained. “We would not go faster if we rotated with seven.”

That fitted what unfolded on the road. Visma were slightly behind Netcompany INEOS at the first intermediate point, but had moved into the lead by Sagrada Familia and then widened the gap before the Olympic Stadium. By the time the stage reached the decisive part of the course, Vingegaard still had the support he needed.

Other teams had different problems in the finale. UAE Team Emirates – XRG finished with Tadej Pogacar and Isaac del Toro still present at the sharp end, but not fast enough to prevent Pogacar starting the road stages 12 seconds behind Vingegaard. Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe saw Florian Lipowitz lose contact late, leaving Remco Evenepoel ahead of him in the early GC picture. INEOS were quick enough for second, but Kevin Vauquelin’s puncture ended their yellow jersey chance. Visma’s calculation had held.

Heijboer admitted afterwards that even he had not expected Visma to win the stage. “To be honest, I did not expect us to win,” he said.

The pacing strategy had been discussed with the riders well before the Tour began. Victor Campenaerts was also consulted, giving Visma another time trial specialist’s view before the team committed to the plan. “We had discussed that tactic with our riders some time ago,” Heijboer said. “We also checked with Victor to see what he thought of it.”

The final version was not purely computer-imposed. The riders still added their own input, but the core idea survived: save Vingegaard, Piganzoli and Kuss for the climbs, rather than asking them to spend energy too early on terrain where other teammates could do the job more efficiently.

“There was still input from the riders, small things they would do differently,” Heijboer added. “But everyone embraced the idea of saving those three riders for the climbs.”

The result was a perfect opening day for Visma: stage victory, Vingegaard back in the Tour de France yellow jersey for the first time since 2023, and early time gained on Pogacar, Juan Ayuso and Evenepoel. The winning pattern had been tested long before the Barcelona clock started.