Team Visma | Lease a Bike started the Tour de France three weeks ago in Florence, Italy, with some doubts. Due to a heavy crash in the Tour of the Basque Country, leader Vingegaard was not quite at his best at the start. Although the two-time Tour winner started with a clearly stated ambition, he fell just short against overall winner Tadej Pogacar, partly due to the lack of perfect preparation.

The highlight was experienced by Team Visma | Lease a Bike in stage 11 towards Le Lioran. Vingegaard sprinted to victory in the Massif Central after an exciting stage. Team Visma | Lease a Bike finished on the podium in nine of the 21 stages and, in addition to Vingegaard, also saw Matteo Jorgenson finish in the top ten of the general classification. 

The team reached Nice, due to the upcoming Olympics in Paris for once the finishing place, with all eight riders. In addition to Vingegaard and Jorgenson, also Wout van Aert, Wilco Kelderman, Tiesj Benoot, Christophe Laporte, Jan Tratnik and Tour debutant Bart Lemmen finished in one piece in the southern French city. 

Vingegaard summed up his feelings after his fourth Tour de France podium finish in a row in words. “At the beginning of the year I would have been disappointed with second place. But if you had told me three months ago after the crash that I would be able to finish second in the Tour, I wouldn't have believed it myself. I had doubts that I would ever be on the bike at all, let alone be able to return to level. To finish on the podium again this year and win a stage, that is definitely more than I could have dreamed of a few weeks ago,” stated the Dane.

“From the moment I was allowed to leave intensive care and the hospital in mid-April, only the Tour de France was in my head,” Vingegaard continued. “I was happy that I was able to make it to the Tour. Now it's time to put things into perspective. I've hardly had time for that in the past few months. I want to congratulate Tadej wholeheartedly. He is absolutely the deserved winner of this Tour de France. We made it, especially in the first two weeks, another great battle. With a super strong Team Visma | Lease a Bike we gave him a hard time, but Tadej was clearly the strongest this year. I myself am a more than satisfied person. I have suffered the last three weeks, but strengthened by my family and by a great team, I also enjoyed a great Tour de France. It is a privilege to be a professional cyclist."