Visma-Lease a Bike team manager Richard Plugge liked what he saw at the 2026 Tour de France route presentation in Paris, optimistic that Jonas Vingegaard can challenge four-time winner Tadej Pogačar next July.
The Dane beat Pogačar in 2022 and 2023, but the Slovenian and UAE Team Emirates-XRG bounced back to dominate the Tour in 2024 and 2025.
Vingegaard has recently hinted that he may race the Giro d'Italia before the Tour, but the many mountain stages in the 2026 route mean Vingegaard is likely to focus on the Tour in 2026, with Matteo Jorgenson, Sepp Kuss, and Wout Van Aert as vital teammates.
"We still believe we can fight for the win," Plugge told Het Laatste Nieuws after the route presentation in the Paris Palais des Congrès, just beyond the Champs Élysées, where the Tour finishes each July.
"We're very confident about that. There are some great stages that should suit Jonas very well, and the team time trial and time trial certainly won't be a disadvantage. But I think several riders within our team see potential on this course."
Plugge is hoping that Visma-Lease a Bike can take on Pogačar on the final decisive stages to L'Alpe d'Huez.
"It's a beautiful course. That last week is really tough. The organisers clearly want to keep the suspense going for a long time, and I think they've designed a good course to achieve that," he said.
Wout Van Aert went close to a stage victory three times this year, before finally winning stage 21 to Paris that included the climb to Montmartre. The final stage in 2026 again climbs the iconic cobbled streets but via a different road from the Champs Élysées, with more time for some sprinters to catch any attacks.
"Wout put on a great show in Montmartre during the last Tour. I'm glad he can try to repeat that there next year," Plugge said.
"Wout is such a good all-rounder that there are always opportunities for him in the Tour. But first the question is whether he even wants to ride the Tour. We'll be discussing that in the coming weeks."
While riders enjoy their off season, performance staff and sports directors will now begin to study the stages, perhaps even carrying reconnaissance visits before the winter snow arrives and closes some mountain roads.
"We already knew a lot, of course. We've been working on this for weeks, but now we can start mapping it all out," Plugge said.
The Visma-Lease a Bike Head of Racing Grischa Niermann will lead that work with the performance team.
”The mountains are spread out over the course, but it’s still quite backloaded with a hard last week," Grischa Niermann said of the route.
"It looks like stage 20 will be the big queen stage of the race with multiple long climbs, so hopefully the fight for the yellow jersey will still be on by then. Croix de Fer and Galibier are beautiful but really hard.
"Alpe d’Huez is indeed also a very iconic climb, but stage 19 will be more explosive with a big showdown there, as there are no major climbs before.
"The Tour de France is always a hard race, and next year will be the same. It could suit Jonas well, but again, we have to look further into the stages."
