Piganzoli rules himself out as Van Aert's Tour replacement
Davide Piganzoli (Visma | Lease a Bike) won the 2026 La Route d'Occitanie on Saturday with victory on the queen stage to Loudenvielle. The 23-year-old Italian, second at the 2025 edition with Polti VisitMalta, took his first major win for his new WorldTour squad. The 172km final stage covered five categorised climbs and 3,426m of elevation gain across the Pyrenees, including the Hourquette d'Ancizan and the Col de Val Louron-Azet.
Piganzoli was the pre-race favourite coming into the race off the back of an eighth-place at the 2026 Giro d'Italia, where he had been Jonas Vingegaard's climbing domestique with the Dane going on to dominate to secure the maglia rosa.
"I recovered really well after the Giro," Piganzoli said in his post-race flash interview. "I really had the goal to win this race. We worked really well as a team and I really enjoyed the race."
The win is his first major victory in the yellow and black of Visma | Lease a Bike after joining the team from Polti Visit Malta ahead of the 2026 season.
Piganzoli began his 2026 campaign at the Faun-Ardèche Classic in February.
"I started here in France with the first classic in Ardèche. I saw my activity with the team and I really enjoyed. It's super nice to be here in France with Visma and I really enjoyed the race here today."
Piganzoli to the Tour?
Piganzoli's name had been on the list of possible replacements for Wout van Aert in Visma | Lease a Bike's Tour de France squad, with the Belgian ruled out earlier this week after an elbow infection picked up at the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. The Italian effectively closed the door on the idea after his win on Saturday.
"I have to say that now my programme is just to do Pologne and Clásica San Sebastián and maybe in the last part of the year the Italian races," concluded Piganzoli.
Visma | Lease a Bike will announce Van Aert's replacement on June 23, ahead of the Tour de France start in Barcelona on July 4.
The most likely candidates to replace Van Aert are Bart Lemmen, Wilco Kelderman, Jørgen Nordhagen, and Ben Tulett.
The 2026 Route d'Occitanie ran across three stages from 18 to 20 June. Thibaud Gruel (Groupama-FDJ United) won stage 1 in Saint-Paul-Cap-de-Joux, with Ronan Augé (Unibet Rose Rockets) declared the winner of stage 2 in Saint-Gaudens after the initial winner, Noa Isidore (Decathlon CMA CGM), was relegated.
Piganzoli's stage 3 win on Saturday sealed the overall classification with a margin of 1:51 over the nearest GC competito, Ibon Ruiz (Kern Pharma).
Make us your preferred source on Google
Stay closer than ever to the latest cycling news, interviews and analysis. Simply selecting Domestique as a Preferred Source can really help us grow, while making sure you see more of our stories in your news overview.
