Bruno Armirail is what you would call a late bloomer in the sport of cycling. The new Team Visma | Lease a Bike rider only started cycling at the age of 15. For Armirail, his early teenage years were spent trying out a wide range of sports. Rugby was probably the discipline he enjoyed the most and played the longest, until one day at school he started doing duathlons, a mix of running and cycling. The young Frenchman particularly enjoyed the cycling part, and that’s where it all began.

“One of my friends took me down to the local club in Bagnères-de-Bigorre, where I really tried cycling for the first time. I fell in love with the sport and quickly stopped playing rugby to continue cycling. Before that, I had no interest in cycling. I didn’t even watch the Tour de France,” Armirail says.

Despite picking up cycling quite late, Armirail gradually began to show more and more signs of his great physical potential. At 19 years of age, he finished second at the French national U23 time trial championships, which he went on to win the following year. His results against the clock were not enough on their own, however, as Armirail had to wait to turn professional until 2018, when he was almost 24 years old.

At that point, he was picked up by Groupama-FDJ, who gave him a platform to continue delivering strong performances on the time trial bike. As Armirail became more accustomed to the speed of the WorldTour, he also developed into a trusted domestique for the French team when one of his captains was racing. He found himself enjoying exactly those two aspects of cycling.

“The team spirit of cycling is very important to me. I love helping my leaders perform at their best and achieve the highest possible result. But I also still have a passion for time trialing. The meticulous pursuit of performance in a discipline where every detail counts is very interesting.”

In 2021, Armirail finally got to race the event he didn’t even watch as a youngster, but had started dreaming of from the moment he got into cycling: the Tour de France. His favorite race on the entire calendar. The atmosphere is unlike anything else, the homegrown rider explains, although the biggest moment of his career so far didn’t come there. “Seeing my friends among all the fans at the Tour de France is amazing, but the best moment of my career came at the Giro d’Italia in 2023, when I took the leader’s jersey and held it for a few days. That is a very fond memory,” Armirail says.

After his memorable Giro in 2023, Armirail continued to impress in 2024 and 2025 with Decathlon AG2R, before making the switch to Team Visma | Lease a Bike this winter. His first real impression of the team came in November and December and fortunately, it was a positive one. “Everyone is relaxed and very friendly. Despite my difficulties with English, everyone approaches me and helps me integrate, trying to support me as much as possible. Learning English is completely new to me, and it isn’t easy to learn from scratch, but it’s going well.”

And while English may still be a work in progress for Armirail, no one doubts his abilities on the bike. Already looking ahead to the season to come, the new Bee is excited to put his skills to use in new colors and for new teammates. “I’m not the best climber, but I can handle many climbs, and even though I don’t win many time trials, I’m quite often well placed. I think I can be a very versatile teammate,” Armirail concludes.

Favorite dish: 

"Le Gateau a la Broche"

Favorite climb: 

"Col d'Aspin"

Idol in cycling: 

"Alberto Contador"

What do people not know about you yet: 

"My friends and I have a bike shop/café called Chez Octave, where we sell bikes and lunch. We've just opened a new one on the top of Col du Tourmalet."