Jonas Vingegaard paves the way to his first Giro d’Italia

Finally dressed in pink, garment for the great chosen ones, Jonas Vingegaard kisses for the fourth time the family snapshot that adorns his handlebar, this time atop Carì, green meadows on the slopes of the Swiss Alps, and celebrates at will, knowing that only misfortune, a fall, or illness can now deprive him of his first Giro d’Italia, a winner in the making, after the Tour and the Vuelta, of the three grand tours.

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The change of script will not come from within the peloton, where a good handful of contenders decide to embrace consistency, the eternal promise of success in the Giro, a race marked by toughness and weather hardships, and reject without hesitation any sense of spectacle. The result, a very prominent leader, very prominent indeed, slowly awaiting his turn to kiss the Senza Fine trophy next to the Roman Colosseum, and a long line of renowned stage racers, all far from the top world tier, measuring efforts behind, calculator in hand, in the cold fight for the podium.

On the day marking nine years since the last Giro victory of the absent Mikel Landa — glory in Piancavallo, where Pantani raised his arms in ’98 and where the mysterious Geoghegan Hart headed to his win during the pandemic — the morning starts with difficulties forming the breakaway, even more so on a short route, only 113 kilometers to the finish.

Triumph goes to the telephonic Einer Rubio, stage winner in the 2023 Giro, also in Switzerland, at the Crans-Montana station, who escapes at the front along with Chris Harper, the cyclamen Jhonny Narváez, and a Giulio Ciccone angry with the world. The quartet holds out until just before the bonus sprint, 13 kilometers from the finish, when first Narváez and then Ciccone sit down voluntarily, resigning from a break doomed to fail.

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Behind, the Decathlon team toughens up, something that raises some eyebrows on the roadside, where they see a red carpet for Vingegaard’s Visma, but it has an explanation, right or wrong: Gall, third overall, wants to distance from his wheel those he considers his true rivals for the podium, Arensman and Hindley.

The group devours the escapees and everything explodes six kilometers from the summit, already in full ascent, when the Italian Piganzoli, Vingegaard’s teammate at Visma, gives his last effort and propels the Dane towards a solo victory, with Gall, Arensman, Hindley, or Bernal unable to follow the pink jersey holder. Nor do they try, to be fair. Their battle is another. And they do insist on proving it. The acceleration, however, takes down Pellizzari, unrecognizable so far in the race, and the dreamer Afonso Eulálio, who loses the podium but clings to the legacy his adventure will leave in the fans’ memory.

Vingegaard wins after pushing harder than anyone on the big chainring — the only one he uses these days to climb the demanding Giro ramps — and more than a minute later Gall accelerates already in the fenced section, to claw back time on his equals. He succeeds, 2s on Hindley and 5s on Arensman, adrenaline with a safety net. The podium awaits them in Rome. Glory, for now, must wait.

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General Classification

pos rider	Team	Time
1 Jonas Vingegaard Rasmussen	TVL	2h:57:04
2 Felix Gall	DCD	+01:09
3 Jai Hindley	RBH	+01:11
4 Thymen Arensman	IGD	+01:14
5 Derek Gee	LTK	+01:18
6 Davide Piganzoli	TVL	+01:34
7 Egan Arley Bernal Gomez	IGD	+02:04
8 Michael Storer	TUD	+02:18
9 Mathys Rondel	TUD	+02:55
10 Wouter Poels	TDT	+03:04

pos rider	Team	Time
1 Jonas Vingegaard Rasmussen	TVL	62h:10:26
2 Felix Gall	DCD	+04:03
3 Thymen Arensman	IGD	+04:27
4 Jai Hindley	RBH	+05:00
5 Afonso Eulálio	TBV	+05:40
6 Derek Gee	LTK	+07:09
7 Michael Storer	TUD	+07:14
8 Davide Piganzoli	TVL	+07:57
9 Ben O’Connor	JAY	+09:20
10 Egan Arley Bernal Gomez	IGD	+09:44

See full classification