"Jonas knew his Tour de France training schedule nine months ago" reveals Jumbo-Visma's Mathieu Heijboer

In a revealing interview, Jumbo-Visma's head of performance, Mathieu Heijboer has revealed the extent of reconnaissance that goes into a Tour de France preparation.

"Jonas knew his Tour de France training schedule nine months ago," he tells Velo News. "Not the exact sessions, but he knew almost exactly would he'd be racing, resting, training to peak. In some cases he even had an idea what he'd be eating."

With Jonas Vingegaard currently at the Critérium du Dauphiné, the Jumbo-Visma leader has even been giving his teammate Christophe Laporte sprint lead outs. "Planning for the Tour is a massive task for us," he says. "It involves many, many inputs, and takes weeks to bring together."

"We've been going to altitude a very long time, and I think we're close to finding a winning formula every time. And we've seen it works for Jonas," he continues. "To be able to get to perform at the highest level in the races we want, we can come very close with altitude training.”