Bjarne Riis has admitted he underestimated Team Visma | Lease a Bike before the start of the Tour de France.
The former Tour winner and team owner was taken aback by the Dutch team’s opening performance, with Jonas Vingegaard and his teammates producing a display that Riis described as close to perfect.
According to TV 2 Sport, Riis made the comments on Feltet’s podcast Riis i feltet, where he praised both the team’s collective strength and Vingegaard’s individual level after the opening team time trial.
Visma prove Riis wrong
Visma began the race without two of their most recognisable engines, Wout van Aert and Christophe Laporte.
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That absence had shaped Riis’ expectations. He did not see the team as one of the obvious favourites to dominate the early test, especially against squads packed with time-trial specialists.
But the performance in Barcelona forced him to reconsider.
“They delivered something close to the perfect team time trial. I am a little surprised. I had not quite expected them to be right at the top. I had them more as an outsider,” Riis said, according to TV 2 Sport.
He then went even further in his praise.
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“But I have to bow down and take my hat off to Visma, because wow… that was quite a rocket they just fired off there. The perfect team time trial. The timing… Wow, how their big engines delivered. Without Van Aert and Laporte I thought: ‘How strong can the others ride?’ I can certainly promise you, they delivered.”
Vingegaard takes yellow after Barcelona statement
The result also gave Vingegaard the perfect start to his Tour campaign.
According to Cycling Weekly, Visma won the 19.6-kilometre team time trial in 21 minutes and 47 seconds, putting Vingegaard into the first yellow jersey of the race.
Netcompany Ineos finished eight seconds behind, while Tadej Pogačar’s UAE Team Emirates-XRG came in 12 seconds down.
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The same report described how Davide Piganzoli and Matteo Jorgenson helped lead Vingegaard into the final section, before the Dane finished off the ride on the climb to the line.
For Riis, that detail mattered. He did not only see a strong team. He saw a Vingegaard who already looked capable of shaping the race.
An outstanding individual effort
Riis also singled out Vingegaard’s own performance, calling it “outstanding”.
That assessment fits with the wider picture from the opening stage. According to The Guardian, Vingegaard claimed his first yellow jersey since 2023 after leading Visma to victory in Barcelona.
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The stage gave the Dane an early advantage over Pogačar, but also served as a statement after several difficult years.
Vingegaard himself was careful not to overstate the importance of one day. Still, the tone around his team changed quickly.
Before the race, questions had been asked about whether Visma had enough power around him. After the team time trial, Riis was no longer talking about weakness.
A warning shot at the Tour
Visma’s start does not decide the Tour de France, but it changes the early mood of the race.
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The team arrived without Van Aert and Laporte, yet still delivered one of the most convincing performances of the opening weekend. According to CyclingUpToDate, Van Aert was ruled out by injury and fitness concerns, while Laporte was also unavailable.
That made the ride even more striking.
For Riis, the message was clear. Visma were not merely surviving without two major names. They were already functioning at a level that could make them the team to beat.
Vingegaard now has the yellow jersey, an early time gap and, perhaps just as importantly, a team performance that has forced one of Danish cycling’s most prominent voices to reassess their chances.
