Victor Campenaerts arrived at Team Visma | Lease a Bike as an experienced rider with a Tour de France stage win, an Hour Record to his name, and a reputation as one of the strongest engines in the peloton. Just over a year later, he appears to have become something even more valuable to Jonas Vingegaard’s Grand Tour ambitions.
According to Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws, Visma are set to extend Campenaerts’ contract by an additional season despite the Belgian already being tied to the team through to the end of 2027. The reported move comes during a Giro d’Italia where the 34-year-old has once again become one of the most visible support riders around Vingegaard. That importance goes well beyond simple domestique work.
Over the past 18 months, Campenaerts has increasingly emerged as one of the riders Visma trust to control chaos around their Tour de France champion. On nervous flat stages he helps guide Vingegaard through positioning battles and dangerous finales. In mountain stages he survives far deeper than most traditional rouleurs. Inside the race itself, he has effectively become one of the team’s road captains.
That evolution is one of the more unusual transformations in modern cycling. For much of his earlier career, Campenaerts was focused almost entirely on individual performance. Time trials were the obsession. Marginal gains, aerodynamics and power numbers shaped his reputation far more than tactical teamwork or Grand Tour support riding.
Now, however, he openly describes his role very differently. “My role is very varied. In the flat stages I try to be the best possible time trial rider. In the mountain stages I try to find my best climbing legs. I hope Jonas thinks that is enough,” Campenaerts told Het Laatste Nieuws during the Giro d’Italia.
From Hour Record specialist to Vingegaard lieutenant
Campenaerts’ move into elite support work did not happen overnight. After years spent chasing individual results, his increasing focus on Classics racing and aggressive breakaway riding gradually changed how he viewed racing itself. By the time he joined Visma ahead of 2025, he had already developed into one of the peloton’s most versatile all-round workers. That versatility is exactly what makes him so valuable to Vingegaard.
Modern Grand Tours are no longer won purely in the mountains. Teams increasingly place enormous importance on riders capable of handling multiple race scenarios across three weeks. Campenaerts can pull on flat terrain like a classics specialist, ride elite-level time trials, survive medium mountain stages and still contribute tactically late into races.
Just as importantly, he appears to have developed a strong understanding with Vingegaard himself. “It’s not like we go out for dinner with the family during the off-season, or fly from Denmark to Belgium or the other way around, but we race together a lot and we have a good ‘match’, also because my abilities as a super domestique help him win races.”
That relationship has become especially important during Vingegaard’s Giro-Tour double project this season, where Visma are relying heavily on experienced riders capable of protecting the Dane through stressful race situations before the decisive mountain stages even begin.
For Campenaerts, adapting to that supporting role required a complete mindset shift. “I had to learn that. First I was a time trial rider and at that moment I had little idea how team sport really worked,” he admitted. “I sat with my team-mates at the dinner table, but how to be a good domestique… honestly, at that point I wasn’t interested in that. I just wanted to win time trials.”
Only later, after moving deeper into Classics racing and team-oriented riding, did his perspective begin to change. “By focusing more on the Classics afterwards, I started to understand that team dynamic much better.”
That understanding now appears to have made him one of the most trusted riders in the entire Visma setup and, if the latest reports from Belgium prove accurate, the team are already making plans to keep Vingegaard’s increasingly important lieutenant in place beyond 2027.
Kieran WoodDeputy Editor-in-Chief
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He regularly contributes to DartsNews.com and CyclingUpToDate.com, where he covers professional cycling and darts. In cycling, his work includes liveblogs from major races, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, alongside race reports and analysis. He has also conducted interviews with professional riders.
His reporting spans the full racing calendar, from one-day classics to stage races, with a focus on accurate, real-time coverage and clear contextual analysis. For statistics, results, and historical context, he regularly uses resources such as ProCyclingStats. To support reporting on rider activity and training context where relevant, he also references Strava.
In his work, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles as new, verified information becomes available.
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