Visma-Lease A Bike Sports Director Merijn Zeeman has changed the parameters and goals that determine whether Jonas Vingegaard will ride the 2024 Tour de France."

Vingegaard was involved in a terrible crash in the country of Itzulia-Basque on 4 May and has since been in a battle with time to recover from his injuries. 

The latest twist in the drawn-out "will-he-won't-he" Tour de France saga was provided by Zeeman during an interview with the Cycloo Wielercafe podcast.

If confirmed, this constitutes a bar drop set by the previous comments of the Visma-Lease A Bike team. Earlier this year, the Dutch team had said that the Tour de France double winner would appear on the starting line for the week in Florence only if he was 100% ready and in a position to fight for a triple win. 

These expectations and limitations appear to have changed.

"The tour is not like a major time trial where the best riders always win," Zeeman said when asked about the possibility of a change in their standards

"So there's a tactical element to it too and whether you can stay out of trouble." So we are going to make a decision."

Zeeman confirmed that the team had been elsewhere after more riders suffered crashes and setbacks since the Visma-Lease A Bike leader was last stated to need to be in a position to fight for maillot jaune.  

"Yes, I said it two weeks after those falls. We are moving on for quite some time now and we may still need to refine this," Zeeman said.

"It's a very difficult puzzle. We have a lot of injuries so we're still doing some work to sort things out.

"Wout Van Aert is already much more advanced and he's already on the Norwegian tour, but Jonas, of course, has been tough since the Italia Basque country race

"He's training now. But training is 1 thing, but whether you can compete on tour is another thing.

"We are not yet ready to say that if we can get to the podium, he will start. But one day we will take stock [and decide]: Will he go, or will he not go? How is he doing now?

Zeeman noted that Vingegaard's own opinion was key to that decision-making process, recalling that the crash that led dane to spend two weeks in hospital and not race since early May had serious consequences. 

"It wasn't just a broken collarbone," he said. "We must not forget that it was a crash that had a very big impact. There is also another fall fear. After the Dauphine, I drove to Tignes, so I told him a lot about it.

Get unlimited access to all of our coverage of the Tour de France - learn more about our journalists on the ground from all stages of the race as it happens.