Have Visma found their last rider for the Tour de France lineup? Christophe Laporte potentially replaced by a similar rider

UAE Team Emirates - XRG and Team Visma | Lease a Bike are the two teams that entered the season thinking and planning a Tour de France win. Hence, both have thought of their full lineups since the month of December already, but Visma had to replace Christophe Laporte. The replacement may have been decided already.

Initially, the '8' consisted of Jonas Vingegaard, Sepp Kuss, Matteo Jorgenson, Victor Campenaerts, Simon Yates, Wout Van Aert, Christophe Laporte and Tiesj Benoot. Laporte however has not raced since October, when he won Paris-Tours. The Frenchman was diagnosed with a cytomegalovirus which prevented him from racing throughout the spring, kept him several weeks off the bike, and has simply not allowed him to reach good form until the month leading up to the Tour. 

Whilst he is a very experienced rider, whose role would consist of leading the team on the flat days, the lack of form would prove to be a weak spot in Visma's armour against a very strong UAE. Hence, after it was confirmed that he would miss out on the Tour de France, a replacement may have now been decided in Edoardo Affini to fill in the same role.

The team is not looking to add another climber or classics rider to it's lineup, but instead wanted a rider to fulfill the role that Laporte typically has in the Grand Boucle. In an Instagram story shared by one of the team's staff, he is seen on a list named 'Tignes II' which can be interpreted as the second altitude camp in Tignes, which the block will likely take on after the Criterium du Dauphiné.

The list consists of six names who will go to the Tour, and now Affini as well. There is the absence of Tiesj Benoot from the list for the altitude camp, however this is justified by his presence at the Tour de Suisse, whilst the remaining riders are either recovering from the Giro (in Yates and van Aert's case) or racing the Dauphiné.