“When I got home, I thought, ‘Why on earth did they change bikes?’” - Fan spotted curious detail about Vingegaard & Visma's altitude training
CyclingSunday, 22 June 2025 at 18:47
Immediately following his 2nd placed finish at the 2025 Criterium du Dauphiné, Jonas Vingegaard and the core of his Tour de France support squad headed off to altitude to prepare for the Grand Tour to come. This was already widely known, but now, some slightly curious new details have come to light.
Knowing Team Visma | Lease a Bike were close to his home near Tignes in the Pyrenees, cycling fan Josep Termens headed out on his bike in an attempt to catch a glimpse of the two-time Tour de France winner Vingegaard and his teammates. Termens wasn't left disappointed either.
“He (Vingegaard ed.) was maybe doing 250 watts. That’s nothing for someone like him," explains Termans excitedly in an interview with Feltet.dk detailing his experience of meeting Team Visma | Lease a Bike. "It was 30 degrees, and he was wearing long sleeves and tights. He wasn’t even sweating, because he was riding so easily.”
A big Vingegaard fan, Termens says he congratulated the Dane on his strong performance at the Dauphine and told Vingegaard he'd be cheering him on at the Tour next month. “Thanks” and “Have a good day,” the Visma leader responded according to Termens.
That was just the first meeting of Termens and Visma though as it turned out. “I saw a group with Victor Campenaerts, Sepp Kuss, and Wout van Aert,” he explains, with Vingegaard, Matteo Jorgenson and sports director Grischa Niermann close in tow also.
“When they (Vingegaard and Jorgenson) reached the top, they swapped bikes — they descended on different bikes than the ones they climbed on,” Termens notes with his curiosity piqued. “When I got home, I thought, ‘Why on earth did they change bikes?’”
According to Feltet, Visma have since confirmed "that the mentioned riders — along with Simon Yates — are indeed training at altitude in Tignes. Press officer Emile Vaessen, who spoke with Feltet, did not have an immediate explanation for the bike change at the summit."
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- so yes, you’re right, it is definitely NOT the doping most of the overly animated posters are railing against.OCexile16-07-2025
- yeah. and merckx. and anquetil. and moser. and delgado. and and and… SO much easier to name the champions who DIDN’T get caught. ummm… lemond, indurain, and… yeah, lemond and indurain.OCexile16-07-2025
- Or Majka, one of the most selfless, reliable domestiques in the pelotonmobk16-07-2025
- Could have brought Ayuso. He's probably healed up from the bee stingmobk16-07-2025
- I think you’ll find hate commentators have very personal, particular and fluid criteria for their outbursts. Things that can set any of them of: nationality, language, face, character, riding style, team, having beaten or denied their fav., domination, success, post-career activity, different opinions, being followed or popular, having supporters, It’s often got very little to do with the actual doping. Tom Simpson is a hero to many.Mistermaumau16-07-2025
- i mention this ONLY because when other names come up practically every single comment screams “proven doper!!! never mention his name!!!” That perspective is totally fine with me, but i do believe that if one wants to hate or scorn any rider for doping then you have to scorn all of them. so… much as i like and appreciate both sean kelly and stephen roche, those who despise dopers should be consistent and get on with the business of hating these guys, too, i suppose. on the other hand, if you don’t really hate dopers, you just hate completely awful human beings who happened to ALSO be dopers, then i certainly get that perspective as well…OCexile15-07-2025
- Until now he couldn’t and neither could others but that’s not to say he won’t bridge the gap at some point, obviously he’s a couple of years behind, would be interesting to know how he’d fare being up against 2022, 2023 Tadej & Jonas.Mistermaumau15-07-2025
- Funny you noticed, before Simon’s move to Visma Adam was the right Yates :-)Mistermaumau15-07-2025
- Ok, unfortunately both of you guys forgot to tell us and, Yates won though I don’t exactly understand what calling the break means, did you win at lotto my getting the 6+1 numbers right?Mistermaumau15-07-2025
Must have been a slow cycling news day to report on this
What I want to know is how this turns up in “news”, did this guy contact media to sell them an “exclusive”? This is what I meant about cycling not having any discussion appeal outside hardcore fans.
Easy, lightweight bike for the climb, aero bike for the downhill ride. They will know whether it's worth the logistic headache and time loss due to bike change.
Which would possibly work if there was a sufficient time gap/road conditions to have the team car with them. A load of potential variables are involved with this sort of thing.