There was good news for Jonas Vingegaard on Tuesday morning as it was confirmed that teammate Edoardo Affini had been given the all clear to start the Tour de France, after a nasty crash on Thursday raised doubts over his participation.
Affini crashed heavily during the National Championships time trial last week, seemingly colliding with a guardrail at high speed on a descent early on in his effort.
Visma-Lease a Bike said last week that his condition would be monitored, but gave no update as to the nature of injury, apart from that he had no fractures. There had been murmurs in the Italian media that he had suffered nasty lacerations, and the Dutch press reported over the weekend that other Visma riders had been put on standby to start the Tour, should Affini not be able to.
However, in a short update on Tuesday morning, Visma confirmed that he had “been given the green light to travel to Barcelona and will start the 2026 Tour de France as planned”.
The racing kicks off on Saturday with a city centre team time trial, where Affini is set to be one of the main engines of their effort as Visma chase as good a result as possible on the opening day.
But beyond the TTT, Affini is an important part of Visma’s line-up for the entire race, and the fact that he can start on Saturday will come as a relief after Vingegaard’s support team already took a blow with the loss of Christophe Laporte and Wout van Aert.
Along with Affini, Vingegaard will be supported in France by Matteo Jorgenson, Sepp Kuss, Davide Piganzoli, Bruno Armirail, Victor Campenaerts and Per Strand Hagenes.
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Most teams are expected to arrive in Barcelona on Tuesday to begin their final preparations for the Grand Départ.
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