"That status is undeniable" - Campenaerts on Visma and Vingegaard's Vuelta expectations; rivalry with Almeida and Ayuso

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".