Visma-Lease A Bike are making their final preparations for next month's Tour de France with a final training camp in Tignes as 10 riders – including Wout van Aert and Jonas Vingegaard – come together before the final eight-man selection is made.
Reigning champion Vingegaard has already been training in altitude in Tignes for a week, while on Monday Van Aert and Christophe Laporte head out to join him.
The trio will then be joined by the team's Critérium du Dauphiné squad – including Sepp Kuss, Matteo Jorgenson, and Tiesj Benoot – after the conclusion of the race, with the team's decision on the Tour de France squad expected in around two weeks.
Vingegaard and Van Aert are both working their way back from major crashes earlier in the year, with the Dane still recovering from his Itzulia Basque Country fall and Van Aert having suffered a spring Classics-ruining crash at Dwars door Vlaanderen.
Van Aert has got one race under his belt, having taken part in the four-day Tour of Norway at the end of May.
Visma-Lease A Bike directeur sportif Frans Maassen said that the race may have come "a little too early" for Van Aert but helped the Belgian understand his level of fitness.
"We will look at the level of each rider," Maassen told Het Laatste Nieuws.
"It wasn't something for Van Aert to have to drop away on the uphill finish of stages 1 and 2 in Norway. But then he took part in the bunch sprints on stages 3 and 4, and he really should have won the final stage.
"Maybe the Tour of Norway came a little too early for him. But he is Wout van Aert. He recovered quickly and improved every day. He had a good feeling after Norway but of course, there's still a lot of work to do."
Should Van Aert make the Tour squad, he'd be expected to play a team role as well as try for his own chances during certain stages. There's also preparation for the time trial at the Paris Olympic Games to think about.
"A lot will depend on the role Van Aert gets, should he ride the Tour," Maassen said. "With or without Vingegaard, that will be a different role each time.
"He is smart, he can judge for himself whether he needs the Tour to realise his Olympic dream, or whether it's better to have an altitude training camp in Livigno in July."
