"The best rider of the moment can be beaten" - Plugge confident that Visma can take it up to Pogacar once again at the Tour de France

Team Visma | Lease a Bike have a firm hold of the pink jersey at the Giro d'Italia currently and there are not many signs that Jonas Vingegaard will be handing it over. In the bigger picture, team CEO Richard Plugge is eagerly anticipating the Tour de France in which he believes the team can put Tadej Pogacar on the ropes.

Vingegaard and Wout Van Aert are amongst the very few riders who have directly managed to beat Pogacar since his improvement in 2024, which has made the World Champion virtually unbeatable in the races that he puts his full focus on. The next one will be the Tour de France.

“In the upcoming Tour de France, Wout joins that other epitome of resilience: Jonas Vingegaard. Over the past two years, Jonas and the team had a flawed run-up to the Tour," Plugge said on the Wielerflits magazine. In 2026, as it stands, it seems as if the team will be able to arrive at the Tour with its leaders not having suffered setbacks throughout the spring that will hamper them

"With that dramatic crash in the Basque Country in 2024, after which Jonas spent weeks in the hospital before being able to train reasonably well, we even extended his training camp slightly to ensure he still had enough training kilometers in his legs".

"After which half of the Tour squad subsequently dropped out sick or injured, and we even had to ask Bart Lemmen to replace Sepp Kuss on the Sunday before the Tour.”

In 2025, Vingegaard then crashed at Paris-Nice, suffering a concussion that kept him away from training for two weeks and ended his spring prematurely. He returned to racing at a high level at the Tour Auvergne - Rhône Alpes, but the gap to Pogacar was all-round large and couldn't be closed.

“In 2025, the long aftermath of the crash in Paris-Nice had major consequences for Jonas’s form and the course of the Tour. With superman Tadej Pogacar and UAE Emirates-XRG as phenomenal opponents, neither the preparation nor the execution can be lacking. Jonas recovered after the Tour, won the Vuelta a España, and was able to build a solid foundation again last winter for the first time in two years with the help of trainer Mathieu Heijboer.”

Changing coaches throughout the winter can help boost the Dane's level this year, with his former trainer Tim Heemskerk leaving towards Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe where he will be preparing Remco Evenepoel instead.

Vingegaard had a strong second half of 2025 and has now been clear from any major injury or illness for over a year, allowing him to continuously build momentum. He won Paris-Nice and the Volta a Catalunya convincingly during the spring; and so far has won all three summit finishes at the Corsa Rosa which he is expected to be winning in a week's time.

That is the perfect run-up for Vingegaard: A victory that would remove the weight from his shoulders; and the trust that he can increase his level even further ahead of July, as the team suggested on multiple instances. His teammates are currently in Sierra Nevada, training at altitude as part of the key preparation block for the Tour.

"Just like the rest of the designated team. Edoardo Affini, Bruno Armirail, Victor Campenaerts, Matteo Jorgenson, and Sepp Kuss, under the leadership of The Architect Grischa Niermann, form a top-notch support structure for our Danish leader".

Seven of the Tour's riders are clearly outlined whilst the eighth, in the absence of the once again injured Christophe Laporte, should be British climber Ben Tulett who impressed at last years' Vuelta in support of Vingegaard.

"Both Jonas and Wout have demonstrated in previous editions that the best rider of the moment can be beaten. By joining forces and overcoming deep valleys, they are back at the top of their game. Hopefully, that collective resilience will coalesce into kryptonite in the upcoming Tour de France, as one of the people from the management of UAE Emirates-XRG put it.