"Wout van Aert is a bit further ahead than Jonas Vingegaard" but both are in contention for Tour de France confirms Visma's Richard Plugge
Cycling
How Team Visma | Lease a Bike will look at this summer's Tour de France is still something that is very much up in the air. After a spring that saw the team decimated with injuries, two of their biggest stars, Wout van Aert and Jonas Vingegaard face a race against time to be fit for the Tour.
"Wout is a bit further ahead than Jonas. They are cycling again. Wout already more than Jonas," Team Visma | Lease a Bike boss Richard Plugge assesses of his superstar duos condition in an extensive interview with HLN. "Initially it was important for them to become healthy again. Now I'm happy they can do some things physically. Afterwards, they can think about when they will become athletes again. Only afterwards can we talk about a schedule."
After van Aert's Giro d'Italia debut was postponed following a crash at Dwars Door Vlaanderen that left the Belgian with a fractured collarbone, fractured rib(s) and a fractured sternum, Vingegaard went down hard in a crash at the Itzulia Basque Country, suffering a fractured collarbone, fractured rib(s) and most worryingly, a pneumothorax. "The way things are going now, in a week or two we can talk to them again as an athlete," Plugge says optimistically however. "With Wout, we have to see how we can plan the next week. As far as Jonas is concerned, the Tour is not out of the question for us."
After taking victory at the last two editions of the Tour de France though, Vingegaard won't be coming in as just an also-ran. "We will only go to the Tour with Jonas if he is 100 per cent," Plugge insists. "He is someone who picks it up quickly and is staggeringly talented. In a maximum of two weeks we will know the answer to whether the Tour is feasible. Not before. I still have high hopes for it."
According to Plugge, the reintroduction of van Aert and Vingegaard to the peloton, will not only make Team Visma | Lease a Bike stronger, but cycling as a whole. "With all due respect, it's great how Tadej Pogacar won Liège, but you were missing riders of his calibre who could make it difficult for him. For cycling, that has been a tragedy," he explains. "It didn't help any team that we sat and watched a monument three times where a rider rides away at forty or seventy kilometres before the end and rides to the finish on his own. Without Wout or Remco or Primoz or Jonas giving them a hard time."
"People want to see spectacle," Plugge concludes. "Forty-kilometre solos are nice once, but I think all the fans would prefer to see the battle until the last moment. I do think about that, because this was hugely damaging for cycling."
Kieran WoodDeputy Editor-in-Chief
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He regularly contributes to DartsNews.com and CyclingUpToDate.com, where he covers professional cycling and darts. In cycling, his work includes liveblogs from major races, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, alongside race reports and analysis. He has also conducted interviews with professional riders.
His reporting spans the full racing calendar, from one-day classics to stage races, with a focus on accurate, real-time coverage and clear contextual analysis. For statistics, results, and historical context, he regularly uses resources such as ProCyclingStats. To support reporting on rider activity and training context where relevant, he also references Strava.
In his work, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles as new, verified information becomes available.
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Jonas Vingegaard VUELVE ✋ Anuncia que esta recuperado y que estará en el Tour de France… Esto vuelve a subir las expectativas 🔥
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