“I’ve worn the pink jersey at the Giro, Jonas hasn’t yet” – But Visma’s new signing won’t be part of Vingegaard’s support squad until the Tour de France

When Bruno Armirail joked, “I’ve worn the pink jersey at the Giro, Jonas hasn’t yet,” it was said with a smile. But it also highlights something real about his first season at Team Visma | Lease a Bike.

He arrives with his own milestones, his own experience, and his own route through 2026. And that route does not run alongside Jonas Vingegaard in Italy.

According to his confirmed programme, Armirail will not be part of Visma’s Giro d’Italia squad. His first real overlap with Vingegaard’s Grand Tour project will come later, at the Tour de France.

So while Vingegaard chases the maglia rosa for the first time, one of Visma’s most experienced new signings will be watching from the outside.

Armirail joins Visma at 31 without an agent, having handled the move himself. He also joins a very different environment. “The language barrier is a bit complicated for now,” he told DirectVelo. “It’s not easy to explain yourself, to be understood and to understand. But little by little, it will come.”

He has already started English lessons and admits it is not simple. “It’s hard to learn a language at 31. But it’s part of my job.”

On the bike, he has noticed changes too. “The training method is maybe a bit different. For now, I do fewer hours, but it’s a bit harder,” he explained, adding that the team trains with more control and less obsession about who has done the most hours. “Here, they know what they’re doing.”

While Vingegaard’s season is built around a Giro-Tour double, Armirail’s calendar tells a different story.

His programme includes Paris-Nice, Volta a Catalunya and Itzulia Basque Country in spring, then altitude camps, the Dauphine, the French time trial championships and finally the Tour de France. In other words, his season is shaped around July.

That means he will not be part of Visma’s carefully built Giro squad, which will surround Vingegaard with mountain depth and stage control. Armirail will cross paths with Vingegaard at Catalunya, but not inside the Italian Grand Tour.

So his pink jersey joke carries weight. He knows what it means to lead a Grand Tour, having worn maglia rosa in the past. He just will not be there when Vingegaard tries to do the same.

Armirail has always been clear about what motivates him. “I prefer to have a very long career and win very few races, but be an indispensable rider that everyone wants as a teammate,” he said. “Rather than ride for myself, win two or three races, not be appreciated and not last long.”

That attitude explains why his programme is built around service roles rather than headline leadership. He is also realistic about what that means at Visma. “When a Visma rider goes, a UAE rider goes in the wheel,” he said, describing how tightly marked the team is. He expects fewer personal freedoms than in the past, but is comfortable with that. “I want to help my leaders as much as possible during the season.”

He has already been told that team time trials will be one of his key responsibilities, and that he will be an important part of the engine room in races like the Tour.

Armirail speaks about Vingegaard without awe. “For me, he’s a rider like any other, even if of course he has won several Grand Tours,” he said, adding that it will feel different meeting him in a race rather than at training camp.

That meeting will come in later. By then, Vingegaard will arrive at the Tour with Giro legs in his body, either strengthened or scarred by Italy. Armirail’s job will be to help manage whatever that has produced.

So while Armirail can smile about having worn pink before Vingegaard, his real work will begin when yellow is on the line.

He will not be part of the Giro dream. But he may be crucial to what comes after it.