How do you replace Wout van Aert at the Tour de France? Analysing who could fill the void in Visma's supporting cast for Jonas Vingegaard

The show must go on. Unfortunate as it may be that Wout van Aert has been hit by more bad luck and forced to pull out of the 2026 Tour de France two weeks before it even starts, Visma-Lease a Bike will have to go on without one of their superstars.

It's the lingering effects of a training crash that have ruined Van Aert's hopes of an eighth consecutive Tour appearance, with an elbow wound getting infected – which thankfully didn't get more serious despite the threat of sepsis – and forcing him to recover on antibiotics and cancel his Tour participation.

A 10-time stage winner and one of the very best Tour riders of his generation, it's no easy feat replacing Van Aert, but Visma's strength in depth does give them options to try to fill the void his absence will leave.

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Visma are targeting the yellow jersey with Jonas Vingegaard, and are expected to be the main rivals to Tadej Pogačar and UAE Team Emirates, so every member of the eight can prove crucial in supporting the Dane, keeping him safe, and launching him on the hardest climbs when he is at his best.

Van Aert has done all those jobs over the years as a stalwart in the Dutch team's Tour team, riding every edition since 2019, all while starring himself as a green jersey winner and yellow jersey wearer. He also played a major role in the two Tours Vingegaard defeated the Slovenian in 2022 and 2023, famously dropping Pogačar on Hautacam as he led out the Dane to a famous victory.

Seven of their 2026 Tour squad are all but officially confirmed, with Matteo Jorgenson and Sepp Kuss making up his high mountain support, rouleurs Edoardo Affini and Per Strand Hagenes acting as the controllers, break chasers and bodyguards, and the versatile Victor Campenaerts and Bruno Armirail bridging the gap between both of those jobs.

With that roster in mind, Visma should have a good idea of what they need from their eighth man, but that official decision won't be made until they reveal their full team on June 23. But who looks like the best option?

Who could fill the Van Aert-sized hole?

Visma have already had to bring in replacements to their squad, with Hagenes only recently being reported as a likely starter after some strong performances in recent weeks, filling in for the injured Christophe Laporte, who suffered a quadriceps tear during a training crash.

This was more of a like-for-like swap, whereas the rider who comes in for Van Aert looks more likely to be a climber, who can bolster Vingegaard's mountain support. Analysing the six domestiques they have, this seems the obvious route, but the specific rider they should go with is less clear.

As we dig into who might be best, it seems clear that there are three options that stand above the rest, but Visma could well opt to utilise one of Vingegaard's top helpers from the Giro if they have enough in the tank for three more brutal weeks of racing so soon.

Ben Tulett

Young British rider Ben Tulett would be the first choice for a lot of people, and has experience supporting Vingegaard in a Grand Tour, having been a key cog in his Vuelta a España-winning team from last season.

Tulett has been rising in status at Visma during what is his third season on the Dutch team, leading them in the Ardennes Classics to a third-place finish at La Flèche Wallonne and 13th at Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

A strong climber with a notable cyclo-cross background, Tulett can provide some punchy edge to the faster uphill finishes that the diesel efforts of Jorgenson and the long-climbing expertise of Kuss may lack on occasion, making him not only another climbing domestique, but a different type.

Another factor in Tulett's factor is a minor one, but could prove vital in a key moment. He's a diminutive figure in the same way Vingegaard is, and in a team of big rouleurs and taller climbers – Kuss is 5'11" and Jorgenson is 6'3" – the Brit riding a similar size bike to the Dane offers him a quick change in a moment of need.

This happened during stage 16 of the Vuelta, when Vingegaard had a mechanical, but Tulett thought quickly and gave his leader his bike, allowing him to get back into the group without losing much time. Amid the craziness of the Tour, you never know when something similar might happen.

So, from a climbing point of view, and a logistical perspective, Tulett is rightly the front-runner in the running to replace Van Aert, even as a vastly different profile or rider. Furthemore, he has shown the team he's in solid form with seventh at the recent Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.

Wilco Kelderman

The most experienced potential replacement for Visma would be 35-year-old Dutchman Wilco Kelderman. He's ridden 20 Grand Tours in his career and has finished in the top five overall at the Tour, Giro and Vuelta.

Kelderman was due to play a big role as part of Vingegaard's support at the Giro, but crashed out with a broken collarbone just four days into the action. Having returned to racing this week at the Tour de Suisse, he's back in the running for potential Tour selection.

He's also added more string to his bow, too, in recent years, often getting into his work earlier in the stages than acting as a last mountain domestique, as a more than capable rider on the flat roads and uphill.

Kelderman doesn't offer as much punch as Tulett, but he's less of an unknown quantity at the Tour, with that wealth of experience and having been part of Vingegaard's winning effort in 2023.

Tulett has only raced two Grand Tours in his career, and this would be his Tour debut, which could swing the balance into the reliable Kelderman's favour.

Jørgen Nordhagen

21-year-old Jørgen Nordhagen is another potential option for Visma's selection, offering a chance to give one of their top young prospects a taste of cycling's biggest race, and he's shown the form to back up that possibility in recent weeks.

Nordhagen, the former cross-country skier-turned professional cyclist, has impressed since turning pro with Visma a year ago, and has only improved in his second year, finishing fourth overall at the Tour de Romandie, second at O Gran Camiño, and eighth at the UAE Tour.

A more than capable pure climber, Nordhagen would be similar to Tulett in the spot he would occupy in the climbing train, before Jorgenson and Kuss likely take over. He was in good form at the recent Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, too, before illness forced him to abandon, crossing the line alongside Jorgenson in the uphill finish to the team time trial, which Visma won.

That sickness which forced him out of the race could have put a stop to his progression in form, though, placing him below Tulett and Kelderman in the options, but a small pure climber from Scandinavia, he looks every bit a potential Vingegaard 2.0 for Visma in future.

The less likely options

Visma have the luxury of having already won a Grand Tour in 2026 at the Giro, so feasibly any of the six supporting riders who made it to Rome with him could be making the trip to the Tour with him after an elite team performance in Italy. Two of them already are in Campenaerts and Kuss, but why not dip into that squad when you need a replacement for Van Aert.

Davide Piganzoli announced himself to the cycling world fully as he acted as Vingegaard's number one domestique for much of the opening two weeks, but started to slow down in the last two weeks after giving everything to secure pink for his leader. At 23, it's fair to assume he doesn't yet have the experience or engine of Kuss and Campenaerts to maintain such a high level for six weeks of GT action in a short window, and Visma don't tend to dispurt the development of their young rider who are well on track, so it looks unlikely.

Bart Lemmen impressed more and more as the Giro went on as he rode for Vingegaard, but he too showed the signs of a tired body that has just completed three weeks of brutal action by the time they reached Rome. Lemmen, unlike Piganzoli, does have Tour experience, having been a late call-up to the 2024 race, but his services, too, would likely be better off after a period of rest with the fatigue of a full Giro in his legs.

Axel Zingle was the last name really being floated around the discussion, and the only real non-climber, but any chance of him joining the Tour roster was ruled out this week, after he confirmed to DirectVelo that he would be ending his season to undergo iliac artery surgery, with no planned return until 2027.

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