Van Aert joins Vingegaard's training before deciding the team for the Tour

Visma-Lease a Bike summons its top cyclists to the heights of the alpine ski resort of Tignes to clarify what their plans will be for the Tour de France 2024 and who will be the cyclists called to defend the yellow jersey that Jonas Vingegaard achieved last year. The latest to join the concentration has been Wout van Aert awaiting the arrival of the participants who are competing in the Critérium du Dauphiné.

Visma-Lease a Bike's lineup for the Tour de France is decided these days in Tignes

Just over a week ago, the news broke that Jonas Vingegaard seemed to be fully recovered from his serious fall during the Itzulia and was heading to the Alps to carry out an altitude concentration that seemed to be ruled out a priori to avoid complications with the pneumothorax he suffered as a result of the fall. However, the fact that the Dane has concentrated indicates that his progression to be at the Grand Départ in Florence is going smoothly.

Wout van Aert joins this team concentration at the Tignes ski resort, in the heart of the French Alps in the Isere valley, a region bordering Italy and very close to the roads where the first stages of the Tour de France 2024 will take place. The Belgian comes to the concentration after making his competition debut in the Tour of Norway, where he only competed to regain competition rhythm and came close to triumphing in the last stage. Along with him, Christophe Laporte also arrived in Tignes, who was forced to abandon the Giro d'Italia due to illness.

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Sepp Kuss and Matteo Jorgenson will still need to join this Visma-Lease a Bike stage, who have been leading the Dutch team's lineup in the Critérium du Dauphiné. A concentration different from the usual ones of the teams in the lead-up to the Tour that usually serve to fine-tune form and teamwork for the Grande Boucle and that, on this occasion, is a blank canvas for the leaders of Visma-Lease a Bike as they will have to assess the form and objectives of each cyclist in order to decide which 8 will face the Tour de France 2024.

In the specific case of Wout van Aert, his participation in the Tour de France will depend a lot on whether Jonas Vingegaard finally participates or not, as in the negative case his role in the race will be to chase breakaways and stage victories, while if the Dane attends, he will have to focus on supporting his leader. On the other hand, the team also has to consider whether participating in the Tour is convenient or not for Van Aert's other major goal this season, the Paris Olympics.

If he does not attend the Tour de France, it is most likely that Wout van Aert will do another altitude concentration throughout the month of July, this time in Livigno.