{"id":739354,"date":"2026-06-16T00:26:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T00:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/739354\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T00:26:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T00:26:12","slug":"visma-might-have-chosen-its-eighth-man-for-the-tour-de-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/739354\/","title":{"rendered":"Visma might have chosen its eighth man for the Tour de France"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Hence, every rider is important. Sepp Kuss and Matteo Jorgenson would be the mountain-specific domestiques; Bruno Armirail and Victor Campenaerts would be key men on the mountains and hilly terrain; Edoardo Affini would be the main motor for the flat stages whilst Wout Van Aert would be a wildcards for different stages, as well as having some of his own opportunities.<\/p>\n

Christophe Laporte would then serve the purpose of working on the flat days for Jonas Vingegaard, and potentially leading out Van Aert as well. But in May, the Frenchman suffered a torn quad muscle in a training crash, forcing the team to change its lineup – but not is plans.<\/p>\n

Per Strand Hagenes to race 2026 Tour de FranceThe Tour Auvergne – Rh\u00f4ne-Alpes proved to be a very important week to test the main contenders to replace Laporte. CyclingUpToDate looked into the candidates<\/a>, in which three names stood out: Ben Tulett, Jorgen Nordhagen and Per Strand Hagenes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hagenes and Nordhagen both left the race before the start of stage 7 with illness. Tulett had a mechanical during the TTT which ended his GC run, but was a key support rider for Matteo Jorgenson all throughout.<\/p>\n

Having supported Vingegaard at the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a last year, Tulett was highly regarded as the likely choice. His climbing performances this year also proved to be worthy of a Tour selection.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, Nordhagen’s breakthrough also promised. The Norwegian was fourth at the recent Tour de Romandie and was at the doors of the Top10 when he withdrew from Auvergne.<\/p>\n

\"Ben<\/p>\n

Against all odds, it seems neither Ben Tulett or Jorgen Nordhagen will race the 2026 Tour de France<\/p>\n

But Visma did not look at the results on paper, but instead the best candidate to fill Laporte’s role. According to Het Laatste Nieuws<\/a>, the decision has been made to replace the Frenchman with Per Strand Hagenes, who has finally shown his true potential this spring.<\/p>\n

The selection may come as a surprise, as the 21-year old has not ridden a Grand Tour before, and experience is key in order to fight for a Tour de France win. But the Norwegian is a similar rider to Laporte and should have the same role.<\/p>\n

Hagenes was second to Mathieu van der Poel at the E3 Saxo Classic, in a spring where he had several breakout performances. He also won the Antwerp Port Epic recently, his first win since joining the elite team in 2024 – although he has won several pro races the year before, whilst still part of the development team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hence, every rider is important. Sepp Kuss and Matteo Jorgenson would be the mountain-specific domestiques; Bruno Armirail…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":739355,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,265451,82,130976,636],"class_list":["post-739354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-per-strand-hagenes","tag-sports","tag-team-visma-lease-a-bike","tag-tour-de-france"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=739354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/739355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=739354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=739354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=739354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}