Visma-Lease a Bike's top riders have had a tough time in 2026, with Simon Yates making the shock decision to retire early, Wout van Aert breaking his ankle during his cyclo-cross campaign, and Jonas Vingegaard dropping out of the UAE Tour after crashing on a descent in Spain, then falling ill.
Yet the team's Head of Racing, Grischa Niermann, isn't panicking yet, telling Wielerflits.nl in an interview that their absence is "not a disaster".
Vingegaard blamed his crash last month on a local amateur who he said was following him on the descent, but witnesses seemed to believe he was going too fast and lost control. That incident was followed by an illness, leading the team to pull the two-time Tour de France winner from the UAE Tour.
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"Due to both the crash and the illness, he wasn't able to train as well. Although I can't tell you exactly how long he was off the bike," Niermann said. "But it was so severe that we decided he wouldn't be able to get fit in time — or at least in top or very good shape — for the UAE Tour."
With his debut in the Giro d'Italia and another battle with Tadej Pogačar in the Tour de France on tap for the season, Vingegaard is anxious to get his season underway, but has to hold back for now, Niermann said.
"It's obviously set him back a bit now. He's concerned about the fact that he really wants to race. But not if he's not fit. Jonas has indicated that he really wants to race and win races. But that's the next step.
"Ideally, you don't let a rider race if he's not 100 percent fit. But sometimes you can't avoid it. Especially with your leader, you absolutely don't want that. Then you have to make that decision. That's not a disaster, but it was a conscious decision not to do the UAE Tour."
Surprisingly, Visma-Lease a Bike don't seem to be adjusting Vingegaard's calendar to fit in another early-season race like Paris-Nice or Tirreno-Adriatico, yet.
"First and foremost, we'll see how quickly he's fully fit again. After that, we'll see how things go with Jonas," Niermann said.
Van Aert is making strides in his recovery during a training camp in Spain, and is still due to start his road season at the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad.
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