“What? I go to the Tour?”: Davide Piganzoli reacts to surprise Tour de France call-up to reinforce Visma's high-mountain guard

Team Visma | Lease a Bike have confirmed the eight riders who will support Jonas Vingegaard at the 2026 Tour de France, with the Dutch squad making clear that its only objective is to reclaim the yellow jersey. The late withdrawal of Wout van Aert due to injury forced a significant adjustment to the team’s plans, opening the door for Giro d’Italia revelation Davide Piganzoli to make his Tour debut. Meanwhile, Vingegaard arrives in Barcelona full of confidence after completing his Grand Tour collection with victory at the Giro, insisting he feels stronger than before the setbacks that interrupted recent seasons.

The announcement was made at Visma’s High Performance Center in Den Bosch, where lead race coach Marc Reef left no doubt about the team's ambitions. “We want to win the Tour de France,” Reef said during the team presentation.

The statement reflected the confidence surrounding Vingegaard after a season that has already included victories at Paris-Nice, the Volta a Catalunya and the Giro d’Italia. However, the road to the Tour has not been entirely smooth. The biggest setback came with the loss of Van Aert, and Reef acknowledged that replacing such a rider is impossible in a direct sense.

“It’s, of course, a big blow that Wout cannot go and it’s also difficult to replace such a rider as Wout,” he said. In the last couple of years, he has been making such a big difference on many occasions during the Grand Tours that we won. He’s also a personification of the culture that we’re having in the team. And next to that, he’s also a leader in the group and goes always ahead in the battle.”

Although Van Aert has already returned to riding, Visma concluded that his recovery timeline did not allow him to reach the level required for the Tour. To replace him, the team opted to reinforce its climbing strength by calling up Piganzoli.

For the 23-year-old Italian, the news came unexpectedly. “Marc called me a few days ago, and was really special,” Piganzoli revealed. “I have to say that my answer was like, ‘What? I go to the Tour?’ And yeah, it’s amazing.”

Piganzoli's recent performances during the Giro d'Italia, where he finished in eighth place while being a key domestique por Vingegaard, convinced Visma that he could provide valuable support in the mountains in the Tour as well, particularly during the decisive Alpine stages.

“I’m really proud of what we did in the Giro,” he explained. “To come back at home and think about how I worked for the Giro and how I worked during the Giro is super special. So it’s extra motivation. In Occitanie it was a super nice days, especially after the call of Marc. And yeah, I give everything and is more motivation for the Tour.”

Meanwhile, Vingegaard appears convinced that he is arriving at the Tour in one of the strongest positions of his career. Speaking from the team’s altitude camp in Tignes, Vingegaard said the Giro had strengthened both his own confidence and that of the entire team.

"It was definitely a good race for us and giving us some confidence, but also some belief that we can, that we can also win the Tour," he said. "I have a lot of belief in myself, and that also gives the other guys belief. And that they really believe in the plan we have and believe that it’s possible to win the Tour de France again."

The two-time Tour winner has endured several difficult seasons marked by crashes, but he now feels he has finally moved beyond those challenges. “Ever since it’s been a big goal for me. Of course, there’s been, as I said, a lot of setbacks, but that’s something I feel like that’s behind me now.”

He described a gradual process of returning to his previous level before eventually surpassing it. “I grew back to being more myself again. It took me some time, but now finally I feel like I’m the same person I was as before all of these setbacks. And I feel like that I’m even further and I’m even a stronger version than I was back then.”