Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) took the maglia rosa after winning stage 14 of the Giro d'Italia at Pila on Saturday and argues that the gap he has built means his team no longer need to attack in the final week.
He leads Afonso Eulálio (Bahrain Victorious) by 2:26 and Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM) by 2:50, with the rest of the general classification beyond three minutes.
Visma | Lease a Bike were extremely aggressive today but did it in such a way that took complete control of the race with the team controlling the breakaway from the very first kilometres and caught the last escapee just over 5km from the finish before setting up Vingegaard's decisive move. He attacked with 4.8km to go and finished solo, with Gall crossing 49 seconds later and Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) at 58 seconds.
Speaking in a post-race interview on Cycling Pro Net's YouTube channel, Vingegaard said: "In the end, we just wanted to go for the stage. You're not going to slow down in the final kilometres even if you have a big gap so you go to the finish. We saw on the parcours that there was a good moment from 5.5 to 6km to go where it got steeper so we said from there we will go a bit harder.
"I think everyone could see that (Davide) Piganzoli already did a good job before and he almost made a gap to the guys behind me and I just had to continue. In general, all my teammates were amazing today."
What the gap changes
Now that the Danish star has his buffer to Eulálio, Gall and the rest, Visma can settle into a role that they will have wanted for the entirety of week two but have only achieved it now. Complete control. They will now take control of every stage with the mountain stages being days for the breakaways while also not taking much time on the GC riders as the Dutch squad look to protect their Danish leader and avoid another Eulálio situation in the final week.
In the lumpier stages it will be harder to control with several riders looking to form breakaways as prestigious stage wins and other jersey prizes still left to be decided. Visma do have a very capable squad for this sort of riding though and, of course, have huge amounts of experience in the field. On the remaining flat stages in Milan and Rome it is more about just keeping a general control of the race but they will be joined by teams such as Soudal-Quickstep, Unibet Rose Rockets and Lidl-Trek as they look to set up their sprinters. The main focus for Vingegaard and his team is to stay safe in the chaotic finales.
"I am just extremely happy with how it is. Having nearly three minutes in GC. I think we're in a very good place. Now we don't need to attack anymore, we can ride a bit more defensively. Obviously, there is still a hard week in the third week but, for now, our plan is to bring this jersey to Rome."
The suggestion that Visma will now just control things may, on the surface, seem like the excitement in the race drops a bit. However, this will lead to more open racing in the breakaway as they will be allowed many more chances in the coming stages which should lead to more dramatic racing.
Taking pink also means that Vingegaard has now put on all three Grand Tour leaders jerseys with the Tour de France being his first followed by the Vuelta a España in 2025. He has won the Tour twice and the Vuelta once. Now, with this commanding lead, Vingegaard is in pole position to complete the set.
"It is a special feeling. It is one of the special jerseys of cycling." said a smiling Vingegaard. "It is something I am extremely happy and proud of, now to have had the leaders jersey in all three Grand Tours is something special to me and, also to pay of my teammates. They pulled the whole day and we had a plan to take the stage to do take the stage and the pink jersey is something special."
Vingegaard has control of this Giro d'Italia with seven stages remaining. But, as we have seen many times in the past, the final week of the Giro is anything but predictable. We will see if the gap Vingegaard has will be enough or whether he will go to dominate the race further on his way to being crowned in Rome.
Cover image: Zac Williams/SWpix.com
