Since 2020, two riders have stood on the top step of the Tour de France podium. Pogačar has stood there five times. Vingegaard has stood there twice.
That near-duopoly is the frame Visma-Lease a Bike are carrying into 2027. Today, race director Christian Prudhomme unveiled the course at the Palais des Congrès in Paris. Plugge was asked whether his man could again disrupt Pogačar’s march, and his answer did not reach for superlatives.
“It is always difficult to assess anything. But I believe that he still has a good chance,” Plugge told TV2 Sport.
He had a verdict on the parcours itself.
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“It is an exciting race with a fantastic start in Britain, where I see many opportunities. We must of course analyse how we intend to try to win the Tour again. But it looks promising, and there are many hard mountain stages, so let’s see.”
A route built around the clock
The 2027 edition opens in Edinburgh on 2 July and covers 3,479km before reaching the Champs-Élysées on 25 July. Three summit finishes are scheduled, Grand Colombier on stage 9, Les Saisies on stage 11 and the Col du Portet on stage 18, alongside 71km of individual time trialling, split between a 38km test from Blois to Chambord on stage 7 and a 33km stage around Toulouse on stage 16.
It is the most time-trial distance in a Tour since 2012.
Vingegaard beat Pogačar in 2022 and 2023 in part by matching him against the clock. Since then the Slovenian has reasserted himself in the discipline while adding Tour titles in 2024, 2025 and 2026 to the ones he already held from 2020 and 2021.
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The crash on stage 15
Vingegaard has not raced since the 2026 Tour, when he clipped a kerb at the exit of a roundabout on stage 15 with roughly 24km remaining, fractured his collarbone and climbed off. Pogačar went on to win his fifth title.
Danish cycling commentator Brian Holm said he had seen the 2022 and 2023 winner back on his bike in Mallorca this month, and that he had been getting word back on how he looked.
“I have heard from reliable sources that he has fire in his eyes,” Holm said on Danish television.
Holm added that Vingegaard had already begun building toward next year and had turned down a royal engagement in the town of Skive on 9 October to stay in training.
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Campenaerts flags the Tour as 2027’s single target
Vingegaard himself has said little since the crash.
“There are still many races I haven’t won. That is also something that motivates me,” he told Feltet during the Tour of Denmark.
The louder voice has been Victor Campenaerts, Vingegaard’s Belgian mountain lieutenant at Visma. Campenaerts told Wielerflits that his team leader had begun sketching 2027 while still in his recovery window.
“I think he first messaged me towards the end of August to exchange some ideas about next year,” he said, in comments reported by Domestique Cycling.
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“At the time, I thought it was a little early.”
Campenaerts also set out the hierarchy for next year.
“We can’t give everything away, but the season ultimately revolves around the Tour.”
Plugge was asked how Visma intended to turn that focus into another Tour win.
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“We must work together, and we are good at working together as a team. Hopefully we can beat everyone,” he said.
