"That status is undeniable" - Campenaerts on Visma and Vingegaard's Vuelta expectations; rivalry with Almeida and Ayuso
Cycling
The 2025 Vuelta a España will begin this Saturday and there is a very difficult Grand Tour on the menu where Team Visma | Lease a Bike where be the team to beat. Jonas Vingegaard will face tough competition in UAE Team Emirates - XRG but equally the team is well prepared to fight for victory.
"On the second rest day of the Tour, there was suddenly uncertainty about the fitness of the eighth rider in the Vuelta, so I said I wanted to go. And there was little resistance," Victor Campenaerts shared with Het Laatse Nieuws. "The team management did emphasize to me that I should initially focus on the remainder of the Tour. But the fact that I spontaneously applied influenced their decision favorably".
The Belgian replaced the departing Attila Valter from the Vuelta lineup, after the Hungarian did not manage to show form throughout the past few weeks. After a tremendous job at the Tour, including the flat, hilly and even mountainous stages, Campenaerts was a very obvious choice to be supporting Vingegaard in this Vuelta if he was willing to.
Not only was he willing to, but his legs also seem to be in the right place. "I definitely feel like I'm at the same level. On Monday, I did a simulation of the team time trial behind my moped. My father, behind whose moped I cycled for hundreds of hours was very impressed after that training. He said 'I accelerated to 70 km/h and you were right in my wake without blinking.’ He talked about nothing else for half an hour... So I think it's all good".
The 33-year old is still surprised with how well he has been doing this year: “I saw an article this week with ten highlights from this Vuelta, in which I was the only normal rider among all the big names. It said that in the Vuelta I'll have to be less rigidly confined to the confines of a domestique than in the Tour... I don't think that will be the case at all. In the Tour, we were sometimes given freedom because we weren't the biggest favorite. In the Vuelta, that status is undeniable".
And his support could be crucial towards Visma winning their second Grand Tour of the season, as the 21-day race will feature almost a dozen summit finishes and several other tricky days. “My ambition to be part of a team that wins the Tour hasn't been achieved yet. But winning the Vuelta is very much in line with that dream. He's very enthusiastic about his condition and is clearly feeling good, otherwise he wouldn't have spontaneously sent me messages asking if I'm ready and if I've had a nice family time."
Asked about UAE Team Emirates, their main rivals for the race, the veteran shared his thoughts: "With Almeida and Ayuso, UAE has the advantage of being able to use two leaders in the tough mountain stages. In terms of talent, Ayuso is close to the big three in the Giro: Pogacar, Vingegaard, and Evenepoel, but statistically speaking, he's not yet a fixture in the Grand Tours."
"He went to the Giro to win, but abandoned halfway through. Jonas is more complete and extremely consistent. Even if he gets a lung punctured in the run-up to the Tour, he'll be there for three weeks... I expect a tough battle, because I still rate Almeida and Ayuso slightly above Jorgenson".
Rúben SilvaEditor-in-Chief
A founding contributor to CyclingUpToDate since its launch in January 2022, Ruben Silva has played a central role in shaping the site’s editorial direction and long-term growth. Before joining the project, he built his experience through independent blogging at Echelons Hub and by producing race previews for Ciclismo Internacional, developing a strong analytical voice rooted in daily engagement with professional cycling.
Beyond editorial work, he has been closely involved in the expansion and coordination of CyclingUpToDate’s wider network, helping establish and support sister platforms across multiple languages. This includes ongoing collaboration with CiclismoAlDia (Spanish), CiclismoAtual (Portuguese), WielrennenUpToDate (Dutch), and RadsportAktuell (German), contributing to a shared editorial vision and consistent international coverage.
He also helps oversee editorial governance across the network, setting standards for accuracy and consistency and coordinating updates or corrections when needed.
Originally from the Porto metropolitan area in Portugal, he holds a bachelor’s degree in Geography. His path into cycling journalism was shaped not through formal media training, but through independent reporting, community engagement, and sustained on-the-ground involvement in the sport.
Over the course of his career, he has conducted approximately 100 interviews across road cycling and cyclocross, ranging from one-to-one conversations and online formats to press conferences and on-site pre- and post-race coverage. His interviews include leading riders, team managers, and prominent figures within cycling media: Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, Mathieu van der Poel, Primoz Roglic, Wout van Aert, Joao Almeida and Tom Pidcock; managers like Patrick Lefevere and Joxean Matxin; and YouTube personality Bryan Kennedy (BKXC)...
Within 18 months of launch, he helped grow CyclingUpToDate’s English-language platform into one of the most-read cycling news websites, built entirely from the ground up. As both a professional journalist and lifelong cycling enthusiast, his focus remains on delivering accurate, timely, and well-contextualized coverage.
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- The Erola Jons incident was not isolated. She felt she could do that because that's how everyone treats Tadej. Remember when he said "If I say wait 2 mins do you show the middle finger and walk off angry?" about the supposed fan who did exactly that? There's nothing wrong with the nurses and doctors asking him to give autographs... but do the surgery first
Rafionain-Glas01-11-2026 - Perhaps he has what Mark Cavendish had, the Epstein-Barr Virus. It caused him severe and unexplained chronic fatigue. I hope he gets better.
parisbound0001-11-2026 - How can medical staff act like that? pretty disgraceful! the guys down and they're near seeing him off ;/
leedorney01-11-2026 - I think that this is exactly what Jonas needs at this point in his career. It's something that could revive his passion for winning, and he's physically more than capable of winning one of those races as well.
santiagobenites01-11-2026 - What a great race! Couldn't look away. Can't wait for the eurosRafionain-Glas01-11-2026
- I think other competitors also had great Tours, so it wasn't that Ferrand-Prévot necessarily failed in some way - it's more likely that the other top riders lifted their game and maybe also a bit of luck with no crashes, etc. It's the Tour de France after all. It's not meant to be easy to defend your title (the few exceptions like Pogacar prove the rule).Pogboom01-11-2026
- maybe we should put our cv at the end of each comment post ... same rights for all of us!Ketterechts01-11-2026
- hahah literally all it is. Glad im not the only one noticing, essentially this is just a blog as it is now. Run buy boys from their bedroom hehe Their very subjective aswell, people on twitter even said their pure visma fanboys, if you listen to Ruben silva guy pre TDF this year all he said turned out to be wrong and constantly fail to realize visma isnt where they was before roster wice or means to contest even RBH or Lidl anymore, ,very biased ppl and when you run ''news articles that way its problematic..miguel01-11-2026
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