{"id":667861,"date":"2026-01-02T00:07:20","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T00:07:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/667861\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T00:07:20","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T00:07:20","slug":"official-visma-finally-confirms-signing-of-young-french-talent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/667861\/","title":{"rendered":"OFFICIAL: Visma finally confirms signing of young French talent"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It is a signing that had been in the works for months, but was only seemingly allowed to be made public at the start of 2026. As the year begins, <a href=\"https:\/\/cyclinguptodate.com\/team-visma-lease-a-bike\" title=\"Team Visma | Lease a Bike\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Team Visma <\/a>| Lease a Bike officially welcome Louis Barr\u00e9 of <a href=\"https:\/\/cyclinguptodate.com\/intermarche-wanty\" title=\"Intermarch\u00e9 - Wanty\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Intermarch\u00e9 &#8211; Wanty<\/a> in the team.This is a move that had already been expected for a while, with the Frenchman being linked to the team since the depths of the winter amidst the Lotto-Intermarch\u00e9 merger which rendered Intermarch\u00e9&#8217;s contracts virtually invalid.<a href=\"https:\/\/cyclinguptodate.com\/cycling\/video-team-visma-lease-a-bikes-next-signing-is-already-in-spain-and-training-with-jonas-vingegaard\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener\"> He was training in Spain with the Dutch team<\/a> as well, confirming the two were closely tied already.\u201cLouis caught our eye during the tougher one-day races. He achieved some great results there, and he also showed himself in the Dauphin\u00e9,&#8221; DS Grischa Niermann said in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.teamvismaleaseabike.com\/news\/news\/puncheur-louis-barr\u00e9-signs-three-year-deal-with-team-visma-lease-a-bike\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">press release<\/a>. &#8220;He is still relatively young and has good potential for growth. We believe he can continue to develop within our team and see him as a strong addition to our lineup for the demanding hilly classics.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>The 25-year old had his best year so far in 2025, finishing sixth at the Amstel Gold Race and the GP de Montr\u00e9al, but also providing a few strong performances throughout the year at World Tour level and other races below. Like Axel Zingle and several other recent transfers of Visma, he is a rider with some degree of success, and the team is looking to get the full potential out of him.<\/p>\n<p>Barr\u00e9 believes in improvement<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe team\u2019s story and the plans they have really convinced me,\u201d the former Intermarch\u00e9 &#8211; Wanty rider argued. \u201cTeam Visma | Lease a Bike is one of the best teams in the world, and I believe that with the support and structure here I can make significant progress. The team is innovative in every area: nutrition, equipment, training camps, and more. I want to challenge myself, and I think this is where I can become the best version of myself.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His role will vary throughout the year certainly, but will also depend on how he evolves as a rider. But the classics are where he should perform best. \u201cI want to keep focusing on the hilly classics because that\u2019s where I perform best. But I\u2019m also looking forward to improving in week-long stage races and supporting the best general-classification riders in the world when they fight for victory.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is a signing that had been in the works for months, but was only seemingly allowed to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":667862,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4104],"tags":[4230,94768,79,180916,182814,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-667861","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-intermarche-wanty","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-team-visma-lease-a-bike","12":"tag-transfers-negotiations","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115822594780844237","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=667861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/667862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=667861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=667861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=667861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}