Did a team chef leak the Visma-Lease a Bike selection for the Tour de France?
Images shared this week by staffer Rolf Hoekstra reveal the riders who will head to Tignes later this month for a pre-Tour de France altitude camp.
The now-deleted Instagram story suggests Jonas Vingegaard will be backed by a true dream team for his box office brawl this summer with Tadej Pogačar.
As already outlined by team officials this winter, Matteo Jorgenson, Sepp Kuss, Wout van Aert, Victor Campenaerts, and newly crowned Giro d’Italia champion Simon Yates will be there in July to form a true murderer’s row of Visma-Lease a Bike superdomestiques.
The surprise name on the chef’s sheet is Italian stallion Edoardo Affini, who was not initially slated to race Le Tour.
Affini is a logical, near like-for-like replacement for Christophe Laporte, who’s out with long-term sickness. The hugely experienced rouleur was a key part of Yates’ sensational Giro win last month.
Tiesj Benoot is not listed for the Tignes camp, but the Belgian brawler is expected to be the last of the eight. He will join Visma’s altitude block when he finishes racing the Tour de Suisse.
#TDF2025 / Eduardo Affini le 8ème homme chez Visma Lease a Bike sur le Tour ? https://t.co/LsaNdDo9Oh pic.twitter.com/aJOw9tYCT8
— Renaud Breban (@RenaudB31) June 4, 2025
UAE Emirates: ‘We’re not afraid of Vingegaard’
The question on everyone’s lips: Can this heavyweight selection slay Pogačar and UAE Emirates-XRG?
“Team Pogi” is expected to be similarly stacked at the Tour de France.
João Almeida, Pavel Sivakov, Nils Politt, Tim Wellens, and Jhonathan Narváez are all likely to be part of the UAE wreckin’ crew.
The Critérium du Dauphiné starting Sunday will give some insight into how the peloton’s super teams stack up. Pogačar and Vingegaard will be backed by the majority of their Tour de France crew at the eight-day tour.
Remco Evenepoel is playing down his expectations for this Tour de France primer, but Quick-Step has confirmed a suitably bristling “Wolf Pack” for next week’s race.
Visma Lease a Bike Tour de France roster LEAKED
Jonas Vingegaard
Simon Yates
Matteo Jorgenson
Sepp Kuss
Wout van Aert
Tiesj Benoot
Victor Campenaerts
… and Edoardo Affini as a replacement for Christophe Laporte.Is it strong enough team to stop Tadej Pogačar? #TDF2025 pic.twitter.com/DBvNFnl2W5
— Lukáš Ronald Lukács (@lucasaganronald) June 4, 2025
Yates’ victory at the Giro d’Italia last week tilted the narrative on the power struggle between Visma-Lease a Bike and UAE Emirates-XRG.
The Dutch team wrestled victory away from Isaac del Toro and UAE and reset the scales after it suffered through 2024.
UAE Emirates-XRG director Andrej Hauptman wasn’t intimidated by the Giro upset or the jabs recently thrown by Visma CEO Richard Plugge.
Plugge positioned Vingegaard as top favorite for Le Tour, and said Visma was still at the front of the arms race of tech, nutrition, and AI.
“We are not afraid of Vingegaard, we are not afraid of anyone,” Hauptman told RTV.Slo. “We’re sticking to our plan, which we believe is the right one.
“We are certainly aware that Vingegaard and Evenepoel will be at the highest level at the Tour. But so will we.”
Shots fired.
Vingegaard ‘a completely different person’
But of course, while cycling is a team sport, it’s won by individuals.
Fortunately for us bike fans, Vingegaard believes he’ll start the race on level terms with Pogi on July 5.
“Even last year, going into the Tour, I believed I could go for the win,” Vingegaard told Eurosport, referring to his crash last year in the Basque Country and the training impacts that followed. “Obviously, that didn’t work out.
“But this year, I feel like a completely different person in the way my body reacts to training, but also how my body is in general,” Vingeaard said.
Bring on the grand départ.