“Pogacar looked less brilliant than usual” - Key Vingegaard domestique insists Tour de France comeback was still possible before Visma leader's crash
Cycling
Jonas Vingegaard's challenge at the 2026 Tour de France ended with the Dane 4:30 behind Tadej Pogacar, but Davide Piganzoli says Team Visma | Lease a Bike were still racing for yellow rather than protecting second place when their leader crashed out on stage 15.
“Until Jonas was out of the race, we worked to win the Tour, not to finish second,” Piganzoli told Bici.Pro after Il Lombardia. “We never took it for granted that he couldn’t win. We did what we had planned.”
Piganzoli had spent much of the summer alongside Vingegaard. After finishing eighth at the Giro d'Italia while helping the Dane to overall victory, the Italian was called into Visma's Tour squad following Christophe Laporte's health problems and again took his place in the mountain support.
Piganzoli played a key role for Vingegaard at the 2026 Giro d'Italia
“We had seen his numbers”
The size of Vingegaard's task had only increased on the previous afternoon. Pogacar won stage 14 at Le Markstein and took another 38 seconds from his rival, stretching the gap at the top of the general classification to 4:30.
Piganzoli says Visma still had reasons to believe Vingegaard could change the race. “Making up four minutes? We had seen his numbers,” he explained. “He had some difficulty adapting to the changes of pace at the start of the Tour, but on the day of Le Markstein, when Vingegaard started setting the pace, Pogacar looked less brilliant than usual.”
Pogacar nevertheless finished the stage by attacking late and increasing his advantage. Visma returned to the front the following day with another aggressive plan. “Even on the day of the crash, we had gone to the front with the intention of dictating the pace of the race,” Piganzoli said.
Vingegaard's fall on stage 15 ended that plan before Visma had the chance to take it any further. His Tour was over and Pogacar's closest rival was suddenly out of the race altogether.
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Piganzoli's unexpected place at the Tour also put him directly inside the mountain battle after an eighth-place Giro in which he had already spent three weeks working for Vingegaard.
He arrived in France believing those performances had shown he could hold his own among the leading riders, but the depth of the Tour peloton quickly gave him a different reference point.
“The biggest difference compared with the Giro was when I started pulling on the climbs,” Piganzoli said. “At the Giro, I would have five or ten riders left on my wheel. At the Tour, there were 50. I admit that mentally, it was quite tough.”
Piganzoli still finished 14th overall, completing a Giro-Tour double in his first season with Visma while spending much of July riding for Vingegaard rather than protecting his own position.
For Visma, the 4:30 deficit remained enormous and Pogacar had just strengthened his grip on yellow at Le Markstein. What never happened was the next move Piganzoli says they were still preparing to make. Vingegaard's crash removed that possibility before the team had to decide for themselves whether the Tour had finally gone.
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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