“The goal is to have this jersey in Paris” – Visma DS reveals year-long plan behind Jonas Vingegaard’s return to Tour de France Yellow Jersey

Jonas Vingegaard is already in yellow at the 2026 Tour de France, and Team Visma | Lease a Bike’s opening strike in Barcelona was more than a strong team time trial on the day.

Visma beat Netcompany INEOS by 7.33 seconds on Stage 1, with Vingegaard finishing off the ride at the Olympic Stadium after Matteo Jorgenson and Davide Piganzoli had helped launch him through the Montjuic finale. Speaking after the stage, sports director Marc Reef said the plan behind the victory had been more than a year in the making.

“This has been working on this for over a year,” Reef said in a post-stage interview where CyclingUpToDate were present. “We had to dare to go for the strategy with five riders. We were going to pull with five riders at the beginning of the climb, but the rest had to do it later on. In the end, it paid off, I think.”

Visma’s execution was clearest in the final kilometres. They had been just over a second down on INEOS at the first split, but moved fastest by Sagrada Familia and carried a six-second advantage into the Montjuic finale.

Earlier teams had faded badly on that same final section. Visma did not. Vingegaard was kept protected until the closing phase, with Jorgenson and Piganzoli the last teammates still with him after the first part of the finale before the Dane completed the ride in the final few hundred metres.

“It feels really good,” Reef said of Vingegaard taking yellow. “It is really good to be in yellow. Of course, the goal is to have this jersey in Paris, but it is a really nice way to start this Tour de France, to already have a stage victory and wear the yellow jersey. From here, we can go on.”

Vingegaard arrived at the Tour after a dominant first half of 2026, with overall victories at Paris-Nice, the Volta a Catalunya and the Giro d’Italia. Reef pointed to that wider run when asked about the Dane’s condition after Visma’s opening win.

“I think you already saw that, with winning Paris-Nice, winning Catalunya, winning the Giro, and multiple stages everywhere,” he said. “Also, with a good rest and camp afterwards, he made a really good step forward. He is doing well, he is happy, he is comfortable, and he is ready to go for it.”

The yellow jersey also came with immediate time on Vingegaard’s closest GC rivals. Tadej Pogacar finished 12 seconds down after UAE Team Emirates – XRG took third on the stage, while Remco Evenepoel ended the day 19 seconds back after Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe recovered from a slower start but could not challenge Visma’s winning time.

INEOS had looked on course to win before Visma arrived, despite Kevin Vauquelin’s puncture forcing Filippo Ganna to finish off their ride. Lidl-Trek also threatened through the middle of the course with Juan Ayuso, but the Spaniard faded on the final climb and finished 16 seconds down on Vingegaard.

Reef also singled out Per Strand Hagenes, who played a key role in the first 15 kilometres before Vingegaard was held back for the final section. “Per was really important in the first 15 kilometres,” Reef explained. “He had to watch the climb, and he did really, really big pulls. Especially in the beginning, he already had to do a longer pull than we expected. His last pull was also really, really strong, and he gave everything for the team.”

The Norwegian has been highly rated inside Visma for several years, having come through the team’s development pathway before earning his Tour de France debut. Reef said the ride in Barcelona underlined why he had been selected for such a high-pressure opening stage.

“He joined our team in 2020, so over the last five years he has been growing in the team, from the development team into the WorldTour team, and now into the Tour de France,” Reef said. “Last year, he already did a great job in the Dauphine. He was second in E3 in the spring, and he also won the Fourth Classic, so he really deserved the spot.”

Visma now carry the yellow jersey into Stage 2 with Vingegaard already ahead of Pogacar, Ayuso and Evenepoel. Reef’s year-long plan delivered on day one in Barcelona; the harder part is keeping the jersey all the way to Paris.