The Dane’s takeover in the Pila ski resort was expected and it was unstoppable, without reaching the strength of Tadej Pogacar, but authoritarian enough to calmly contemplate the last seven stages.
At the end of a short stage (133 km) but including five climbs for 4,350 meters of positive altitude difference, the leader of Visma-Lease a bike won with 49 seconds ahead of the Austrian Felix Gall and 58 over the Australian Jai Hindley, whom he left behind on the last climb.
He snatched the pink jersey from the Portuguese Afonso Eulalio, who only had a 33-second lead over him at the start of the stage. The Bahrain rider fought like a lion again but ended up giving up nine kilometers from the summit, along with Derek Gee-West, Mathys Rondel and Ben O’Connor, before finishing 2:49 behind the Dane.
For Vingegaard, already winner of the first two summit finishes, this is the third victory in this Giro for his first participation.
“Of the three, this is the one I will remember the most. We wanted to control the race and my teammates did an impressive job all day. I am proud of them and proud to have been able to reward them,” he commented after having made his teammates ride all day at the head of the peloton to keep a breakaway of around twenty riders on a leash.
Even if it means putting them to torture like poor Tim Rex, whose grin of absolute suffering, the nodding of the head and the hanging tongue made it hard to see in the rise of Lin Noir.
In the final, he was able to count on an impressive Davide Piganzoli to launch his attack which took place 4.6 kilometers from the finish. “I almost didn’t need to accelerate because Piganzoli took everyone out of my wheel,” applauded Vingegaard.
On the way to the trilogy
“We showed that we were the best team in the Giro. As for Jonas, he’s a machine,” replied the Italian climber.
With this new success, Vingegaard is ideally placed to complete his trilogy in the Grand Tours having already won the Tour de France twice, in 2022 and 2023, and the Vuelta last year.
In the general classification, he is 2:26 ahead of Eulalio, who should fall further in the third week, and 2:50 ahead of Gall, who once again smoothed out his efforts to limit the damage.
Vingegaard still has a third week full of passes, where the Dane will be in his kingdom, having won the three mountain stages so far. And he has already left behind the traditional little virus which had bothered him a little at the start of the week.
In the meantime, he enjoyed his first pink jersey on the podium, one of the most legendary tunics in cycling. “It will be very special for me to enter Milan with the pink jersey tomorrow,” he said.
Winner of the intermediate sprint in the breakaway, the Ecuadorian Jhonatan Narvaez took on the cyclamen jersey with one point ahead of Paul Magnier.
The Frenchman, who has worn it since the first day, intends to get it back on Sunday in Milan where a massive sprint is expected.
