The inevitability of Jonas Vingegaard has descended on the Giro d’Italia.
Cor Vos
Jonas Vingegaard wasn’t exactly hiding anything ahead of stage 14 of the Giro d’Italia, broadcasting to the world that “we’re going to do everything we can to take the pink jersey” on the day in a Visma-Lease a Bike press release. Everyone knew what Visma had in store for Saturday – but that didn’t mean that anyone could do anything about it.
On a short but brutal day in the Valle d’Aosta, Visma-Lease a Bike did what we have seen them do on so many occasions over the past few years, controlling the race from start to finish and dropping several GC hopefuls even before Vingegaard soloed clear on the final climb. There was nothing ground-breaking about the tactics, but you don’t need to get all that creative when you have the firepower that Visma brought to the Giro.
When all was said and done on the Cat. 1 summit finish at Pila, Vingegaard crossed the line 49 seconds ahead of the next rider to arrive – Felix Gall of Decathlon CMA-CGM – with many big names much further back.
Visma’s Davide Piganzoli, who held on to finish fourth on the day and moved into the top 10 overall with his exceptional ride, gave a straightforward assessment of the experience in the aftermath of the stage.
“We started with a plan and we followed the plan 100%,” he said.
The post-stage reflection from the 23-year-old Italian may not have been especially illuminating, but it was also perfectly in keeping with everything we have seen from Vingegaard and Visma this month in Italy. Rider and team have not been flashy, and for all the prowess they showed on stage 14, it wasn’t as if they exploded the race in the way that we have seen Vingegaard do in the past, with healthy but not race-ending gaps. And yet …
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