"I have one big goal left in my career" - Victor Campenaerts closes circle as he returns to Visma | Lease a Bike
Cycling
One of the world's best time trialists at his prime, Victor Campenaerts will next year return to the team where he has had some of his best cycling successes. As a completely different rider with great palmares and priorities thrown upside down, he returns to Visma | Lease a Bike where it all started 8 years ago.
"I was not really satisfied with my opening Classics," Campenaerts told Cyclingnews as he looked back on the early season challenges during this contract year. "And then after that, I also was struggling a bit with the fact that suddenly I was not too certain anymore about my future in cycling."
Initially, Campenaerts was content with the idea of staying at Lotto Dstny but later it became clear that the team was in a bit of a trouble. "The team that I was riding for, and verbally we [had] more or less agreed in January, but suddenly it seemed like it would be difficult to stay in Lotto so it gave me a bit of uncertainty." Therefore an offer to join Visma | Lease a Bike came at the right time.
Campenaerts had ridden for the team, known as LottoNL-Jumbo at the time, in 2016 and 2017, however back then the goals of the two parties didn't necessarily align. "I was younger than I am now and I was full of ambitions, let's say mostly personal ambitions, and I just didn't fit in with the team vision," said Campenaerts.
The team was focused on what they could achieve with Primoz Roglic and, at that time, also Steven Kruijswijk. "It was a higher ambition than my personal ambition so it was not a match at that moment," said Campenaerts.
"They just said it's better for you to go to a team where you can strive for your own ambition and I totally agreed. So that's what I did. I went for personal success and I achieved, let's say, some personal success – success I'm very proud of."
The circle now closes as with age, the priorities of Campenaerts have shifted. "I'm now very satisfied and maybe a bit saturated with personal success and I have one big goal left in my career, and that is winning the Tour de France on the team, being in a successful team," said Campenaerts. "I saw the match with Visma was really good."
Ondrej ZhasilCycling Journalist
Ondřej Zhasil is a cycling journalist at CyclingUpToDate and has been part of the team since 2023. He is based in Ostrava, the third-largest city in the Czech Republic, and covers professional cycling across the main UCI competitions, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España. A key focus of his work is startlist analysis and pre-race coverage, where he examines team selections, rider line-ups, and tactical scenarios ahead of major events.
Alongside WorldTour coverage, Ondřej has developed specific expertise in junior cycling and in racing across East Asia, including competitions in China and Japan. He also maintains a broad working knowledge of other disciplines and levels, including cyclocross, while continuing to expand his understanding of mountain bike racing.
Ondřej holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Physics, which supports his analytical, data-driven approach to performance and race analysis. In his reporting, he regularly uses ProCyclingStats for results, statistics, and historical context. He places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles promptly when new, verified information becomes available.
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