"I can be a very versatile teammate" - Visma's new French signing prepares for Tour de France support for Vingegaard and Van Aert

Team Visma | Lease a Bike didn't have any big name signings amongst the nine riders it presented towards the 2026 season, but it did have the quality. Bruno Armirail was one of the men present at the team camp who spoke out about his ambitions towards 2026, which include a Tour de France presence with the team where he will be a key support rider for Jonas Vingegaard.

“One of my friends took me down to the local club in Bagnères-de-Bigorre, where I really tried cycling for the first time. I fell in love with the sport and quickly stopped playing rugby to continue cycling," Armirail shared in a press release regarding his start with the sport. "Before that, I had no interest in cycling. I didn’t even watch the Tour de France".

The Frenchman discovered he had a talent on the bike. At 1.90 meters of height, he was never cut out to be a pure climber, but is a man who can go up mountains quite well for his size, with a stature reminiscent of Miguel Indurain. He is a rider who can ride in all sorts of terrain, proving himself to be a time trial specialist (with three national championship victories) and also a breakaway specialist, benefiting from his large power output but also the ability to climb well, partly helped by growing up in the Pyrenees. After many years racing with Groupama - FDJ and Decathlon CMA CGM, he takes on a new challenge.

Learning English is one of them, as he adapts for the first time to being in an international team. But the team bet heavily on him nevertheless despite this obstacle. “Everyone is relaxed and very friendly. Despite my difficulties with English, everyone approaches me and helps me integrate, trying to support me as much as possible. Learning English is completely new to me, and it isn’t easy to learn from scratch, but it’s going well.”

Armirail always had his freedom in his former teams, and spent some time in the lead of the Giro d'Italia three years ago after a successful breakaway, he remebers fondly. “Seeing my friends among all the fans at the Tour de France is amazing, but the best moment of my career came at the Giro d’Italia in 2023, when I took the leader’s jersey and held it for a few days. That is a very fond memory".

But here, he knows he has been signed into a domestique role. “The team spirit of cycling is very important to me. I love helping my leaders perform at their best and achieve the highest possible result. But I also still have a passion for time trialing. The meticulous pursuit of performance in a discipline where every detail counts is very interesting.”

However he won't just be any domestique, Armirail will race Paris-Nice, the Volta a Catalunya, Itzulia Basque Country, the Tour Auvergne - Rhône Alpes and the Tour de France this year. In Catalunya and at the Tour, he will be racing alongside Jonas Vingegaard, and his automatic selection towards the Tour itself makes it clear just how much the team trusts in him to perform.

“I’m not the best climber, but I can handle many climbs, and even though I don’t win many time trials, I’m quite often well placed. I think I can be a very versatile teammate," he adds.