{"id":688103,"date":"2026-07-12T19:34:34","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T19:34:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/688103\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T19:34:34","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T19:34:34","slug":"lease-a-bike-continues-vingegaards-paris-nice-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/688103\/","title":{"rendered":"Lease a Bike Continues Vingegaard’s Paris-Nice Test"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anyone looking for riders to select in their Tour pool for Stage 9 of the Tour de France<\/a> should probably look beyond Visma | Lease a Bike<\/a>. The Dutch team safely negotiated sprint stages 7 and 8 and, despite Jonas Vingegaard<\/a> losing considerable time on Stage 6, has no ambitions for Sunday\u2019s stage. Sports director Marc Reef<\/a> explained the team\u2019s plans to IDL Pro Cycling.<\/p>\n

Stage 9 takes the peloton from Malemort to Ussel on Sunday. Although the route has been shortened by 30 kilometres because of the red heat alert, all the main obstacles remain. Visma | Lease a Bike will not be targeting the stage victory. \u201cThat is completely out of the question. We still have enormous confidence in Jonas, and that remains our primary focus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tour de France debutant Per Strand Hagenes and a rider such as Victor Campenaerts will therefore be expected to conserve their energy rather than join the breakaway. Reef believes Hagenes and fellow Tour debutant Davide Piganzoli<\/a> are already gaining plenty from their first experience of the race. \u201cThey were both very happy to be selected. They were nervous when they stood at the start, but they are handling their roles well at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two young riders impressed during the team time trial on the opening day. In the stages that followed, Hagenes worked on the flatter terrain, while Piganzoli supported the team in the mountains. \u201cPer needs to continue along this path. He was there at the right moments. We expect to see a little more from Davide during the remainder of the Tour de France.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo<\/p>\n

\"per-strand-hagenes\"\/<\/p>\n

Per Strand Hagenes is not allowed to join the breakaway in Stage 9 of the Tour de France<\/p>\n

Visma | Lease a Bike stayed at the back during the sprint stages<\/p>\n

We may therefore have to wait until the second week before seeing the yellow-and-black jerseys prominently positioned at the front of the race again. During sprint stages 5, 7 and 8, the entire Visma | Lease a Bike team deliberately rode near the back of the peloton. After Stage 8, Reef once again explained the thinking behind that decision. \u201cWe have seen that we always use a lot of energy because we are afraid something might happen,\u201d he began.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe looked back at crashes in which general-classification riders actually lost time. Over the past seven or eight years, that appears to have happened only once. When you compare that with the energy required to stay at the front and consider the riders we have available, we believe you have a better overview from the back of the peloton.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCrashes often happen at the front or in the middle of the peloton. When you are together at the back, you always have teammates available to bring you back if a crash happens ahead of you. You accept the risk that a gap could open, but you usually still have enough time to return, as we saw on Stage 5<\/a>. That is especially true now that the five-kilometre rule and the three-second rule are being used in stage finales.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo<\/p>\n

\"jonas-vingegaard\"\/<\/p>\n

Jonas Vingegaard<\/p>\n

Visma | Lease a Bike hopes tactic can make the peloton safer<\/p>\n

Visma | Lease a Bike first began using the tactic in March. \u201cWe started doing it at Paris-Nice and continued in Catalonia and at the Giro,\u201d Reef explained. \u201cRichard Plugge, our CEO, has discussed it with other team managers, while the riders have also spoken about it among themselves. It improves safety in the peloton. When we do it with someone such as Jonas, more teams are likely to follow.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is beginning to happen now. Tadej Poga\u010dar has been riding at the back, and we regularly saw Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe doing it during the Giro d\u2019Italia as well,\u201d continued the Visma | Lease a Bike sports director. During this Tour de France, the team allows Vingegaard to make the final decision. \u201cWhen the stress increases, Jonas makes the call and we move to the back together. The precise moment varies each time. It gives us far more than it costs us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe riders are very happy with it, although the first time we tried it at Paris-Nice was a little nerve-racking for them,\u201d the Dutchman added with a laugh. Reef believes further improvements are still possible. \u201cSometimes the rule applies from three, four or five kilometres from the finish, but then there might be a roundabout at 3.1 or 5.1 kilometres to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes you need to move the boundary further away from the finish, although introducing a five-kilometre rule is already a very positive step. The next step would be to decide where the boundary should be based on the specific course.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anyone looking for riders to select in their Tour pool for Stage 9 of the Tour de France…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":688104,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,109672,109589,9046,138323,229359,101,135345,56,54,55,45702],"class_list":["post-688103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-davide-piganzoli","tag-idl-productions","tag-jonas-vingegaard","tag-marc-reef","tag-per-hagenes","tag-sports","tag-tour-de-france-2026","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-visma-lease-a-bike"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=688103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/688104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=688103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=688103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=688103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}