Visma-Lease a Bike have selected young Italian climber Davide Piganzoli to help Tour de France contender Jonas Vingegaard in his bid to dethrone Tadej Pogacar next month.
With Paris-Roubaix winner Wout van Aert ruled out of the Grande Boucle due to an infected elbow, Visma have turned to the in-form Piganzoli as one of Vingegaard's chief lieutenants.
The 23-year-old was hugely impressive in May's Giro d'Italia, battling to an eighth-placed finish as he helped Vingegaard claim the pink jersey.
"It's amazing," said Piganzoli, who claimed victory at the three-day Route d'Occitanie over the weekend, in a social media video released by Visma to announce their Tour squad.
"You saw what kind of steps that he made over the last couple of months and also the impression that he made at the Giro, that he was really the last guy for Jonas to set him up and he made the difference on many mountain stages," said Visma's sports director Marc Reef, who admitted that the team would miss Van Aert.
"Of course it's a big blow that Wout cannot go and it's also difficult to replace such a rider as Wout.
"The last couple of years he has been making such a big difference on many occasions during the Grand Tours that we won."
The bulk of Visma's eight-man team was already known, with former Vuelta a Espana winner Sepp Kuss, fellow American Matteo Jorgenson, Frenchman Bruno Armirail and Belgian Victor Campenaerts other key figures for the July 4-26 Grand Tour.
Norwegian Per Strand Hagenes, who will be riding his first Tour and Italian Edoardo Affini complete the team.
Vingegaard, who completed the clean sweep of Grand Tour victories in May, is bidding for a third Tour de France title.
Since finishing 46th in his first Grand Tour, the Vuelta in 2020, Vingegaard has never finished below second in a three-week race.
But he has been second to world champion Pogacar in the last two editions of the Tour.
"It's very obvious, especially when you have Jonas – we want to win the Tour de France," said team sports director Reef.