Jonas Vingegaard once again underlined his supremacy in the Giro d’Italia on the penultimate stage. The Dane won solo and is on the verge of overall victory.
Jonas Vingegaard showed the winning fist, then he spread his arms and enjoyed the last few meters of his next demonstration of power on the home straight: The Danish cycling star is on the verge of his first overall victory in the Giro d’Italia.
On the last difficult stage on Saturday with the mountain finish in Piancavallo, the 29-year-old exceptional talent once again showed his class and drove safely to his fifth victory of the day. Vingegaard is 5:22 minutes ahead of the last flat 131 kilometers, which are completed on a circuit in Rome.
“Likes to win”
Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a bike) is no longer attacked on the way to the finish at Circus Maximus. “I’m a professional cyclist, I like to win”said Vingegaard, who is competing in the Giro for the first time: “Everything was decided today, so we did everything we could to win. I had an outstanding day.”
On the penultimate stage on Saturday, Vingegaard made the decisive attack on the second climb into the 1290 m high Piancavallo on the southern edge of the Dolomites around eleven kilometers from the finish.
Gall confirms: Austrian is second best
His worst opponent Felix Gall initially stayed behind the wheel, but was unable to keep up with the top favorite’s enormous pace for long. The Austrian from the Decathlon-CMA CGM team secured second place in the chasing group’s sprint ahead of the Australian Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) and the Canadian Derek Gee-West (Lidl-Trek). The gap to Vingegaard was 1:15 minutes.
Gall successfully defended second place overall. Hindley, who won the Tour of Italy in 2022, holds third place. As only the eighth cyclist in history, Vingegaard will have won all three major national tours – Giro, Tour, Vuelta – at least once. From July 4th, he will challenge Slovenian defending champion Tadej Pogacar, who missed the Giro, at the Tour de France.
