A battle between Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard at the 2027 Tour de France is already virtually certain. After the Slovenian confirmed his presence for next year's edition, the Dane's has also been given as a certainty by his right-hand man Victor Campenaerts.

The Belgian has just come off a victory at the Eneco Tour, his first stage-race as an elite rider - after 12 years as a professional rider. The Belgian's level is as high as its ever been, but his role within the team remains to be the right-hand man of Jonas Vingegaard.

Not only is he a centerpiece of Vingegaard's performances on the bike, he is also one of Vingegaard's trusted teammates off the bike. He reveals the two have already recently talked about the 2027 season.

"Certainly in fact, he’s already looking ahead to next year. He first reached out to me back in late August to exchange some thoughts about next year, and I remember saying, 'Whoa... that’s a bit early!'," Campenaerts said in words to Wielerflits.

"But it’s fantastic to see how motivated he is to perform even better". After crashing out of the Tour de France, there had been questions regarding Vingegaard's motivation, after suffering a major setback on top of a few days where his level appeared distant from that of Tadej Pogacar.

Vingegaard hasn't returned to racing since. But Campenaerts keeps no secret of what the Dane's main goal is: "We can’t reveal everything, but the season really hinges on the Tour de France..."

Victor Campenaerts has found his role as Jonas Vingegaard's right-hand man

Mixed feelings for Victor Campenaerts 

Campenaerts has had, in terms of his performance, one of his best seasons ever. But the Tour de France's outcome was a rock in his shoe.

"I have mixed feelings. The season started off very well at Paris-Nice. After that, I rode the Giro with Jonas, which was an absolute blast—it was incredible to see how dominant we were as a team."

"But in the Tour de France, I personally wasn't in the best shape. And then there was Jonas’s crash... That wasn't what we had hoped for," he admits.

"You could argue that a season really stands or falls on the Tour de France. I’d give it a 7 out of 10, but I’m always aiming for more..."

The Eneco Tour victory and the yellow jersey obtained on the opening day of the Tour de France will have been amongst the headlines of the 34-year old's season.

Campenaerts climbing better than ever 

But Campenaerts's climbing performances this year were the sign that he continues to perform at his very best level, specially with his Paris-Nice performance in which he decimated pelotons. At the Giro d'Italia, his preparation also saw him thrive in the mountains like never before.

"The trend from last year was very positive, and I was able to build on that at the start of the season. But as a domestique, you also need to be highly reliable and consistent—and that’s precisely the area where I felt I fell a bit short."

"Naturally, if you lack that bit of consistency—as was the case during the Tour—well... It wasn’t a disastrous race, and I was able to do my job, but it was just a little less than what I had hoped for," he concluded.