Vingegaard seals Giro to add to Tour and Vuelta wins
Vingegaard has now won all three Grand Tours
- Published
Denmark's Jonas Vingegaard has become the eighth rider to win all three of the men's Grand Tours by securing the Giro d'Italia in Rome.
The Visma-Lease a Bike rider, 29, adds his Giro win to last year's Vuelta a Espana and the 2022 and 2023 Tours de France.
Vingegaard's overall winning margin was a huge five minutes and 33 seconds over Austria's Felix Gall of Decathlon-CMA CGM, with Australia's Jai Hindley of Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe in third, a further 63 seconds down.
"Winning all three is very special for me, it's difficult to find the words to describe it," said Vingegaard.
The three-week race came to a close in a largely processional stage, which then turned into a high-octane bunch sprint near Rome's Colosseum, won by Italy's Jonathan Milan, whose hugely powerful launch saw him win by a bike length over compatriot Giovanni Lonardi and France's Paul Penhoet.
Vingegaard was the hot favourite to win this Italian tour, given his status as the world's second best all-round road cyclist behind the now legendary four-time Tour de France winner Tadej Pogacar.
The Dane, who kisses a sticker of his young family on his handlebars every time his crosses the line first, was expected to hold a winning margin of between four and seven minutes, such was his strength over every other rider in the peloton.
The race was won on the mountain stages in the Italian Alps and Dolomites, with Vingegaard's strengths allowing him to methodically attack on the key stages with around 10km to go and tap out a pace that nobody could match.
Vingegaard and Pogacar will both race at this year's Tour de France, which begins on 4 July.
Pogacar is the strong favourite despite Vingegaard's resurgent form following a serious crash while on a descent in 2024 which saw him suffer a collapsed lung, a broken collarbone and several broken ribs.
- Image source, Getty Images
Image caption, Rome's Colossuem was a beautiful setting to end what is known as 'the beautiful race'
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Epic duels, prize monies and funnies
Despite the predictable nature of Vingegaard's charge to pink, the race's 21 stages gave the 184-strong peloton plenty of chances for daily glory.
Highlights of the race included Alberto Bettiol's explosive launch into Verbania on stage 13 and Filippo Ganna's dominant time trial victory in Massa on stage 10.
Spain's Igor Arrieta and Portugal's Afonso Eulalio's battle on a treacherous stage five was a stone-cold classic. The pair battled for victory in torrential rain, before suffering identical heavy late crashes after losing their front wheels on left-hand corners on roads covered by streams of rainwater, leaving them with cuts and ripped Lycra.
The win for UAE Team Emirates-XRG's Arrieta came after the severely depleted team lost their three best riders in one crash on the similarly treacherous stage two in Bulgaria, including one of its biggest contenders for pink in Britain's Adam Yates - whose identical twin brother Simon won last year's edition of the race.
Despite losing key riders, UAE ended up winning four stages, three of them coming with some superbly adaptive performances from Ecudorian Jhonatan Narvaez.
Vingegaard takes home just under 116,000 euros (£100,000) for the pink jersey, plus 11,000 euros for each of his five stage wins, a lot of which will be shared between his seven team-mates who worked for him across the race.
One thing which didn't survive was the attempted cultivation of moustache, which was abandoned mid-race after the Dane claimed he resembled "a teenager".
France's Paul Magnier won the cyclamino points jersey and 10,000 euros - a surprise given the hot favourite was Milan.
The blue king of the mountains jersey and 5,000 euros went to the highly combative and much-loved home favourite Giulio Ciccone of Lidl-Trek.
But it came after throwing a full bottle back at his team helper when frustrated with progress on stage 16 and in a lighter moment after a fan filled his back pockets full of ice lollies., external
The race's best viral moment, however, went to Vingegaard's young domestique Tim Rex, who was leading the team up a steep climb on stage 14 after being pushed so hard by mentor Victor Campenaerts that his pained face became etched into the memories of cycling fans forever., external
Rex's pained facial expressions became legend on this Giro
Giro d'Italia stage 21 results
1. Jonathan Milan (Ita/Lidl-Trek) 3hrs 5mins 50secs
2. Giovanni Lonardi (Ita/Polti-Visit Malta) same time
3. Paul Penhoet (Fra/Groupama-FDJ United)
4. Dylan Groenewegen (Ned/Unibet Rose Rockets)
5. Madis Mihkels (Est/EF Education-Easy Post)
6. Jensen Plowright (Aus/Alpecin-Premier Tech)
7. Tobias Lund Andresen (Nor-Decathlon-CMA CGM )
8. Corbin Strong (NZ/NSN Cycling)
9. Toon Aerts (Bel/Lotto Intermarche)
10. Luca Mozzato (Ita/Tudor Pro-cycling)
Giro d'Italia general classification results after stage 21
1. Jonas Vingegaard (Den/Team Visma - Lease a Bike) 83hrs 22mins 51secs
2. Felix Gall (Aut/Decathlon CMA CGM Team) +5mins 22secs
3. Jai Hindley (Aus/Red Bull - BORA) +6mins 25secs
4. Thymen Arensman (Ned/Netcompany INEOS) +7mins 02secs
5. Derek Gee-West (Can/Lidl - Trek) +7mins 56secs
6. Afonso Eulalio (Por/Bahrain Victorious) +9mins 39secs
7. Michael Storer (Aus/Tudor Pro Cycling Team) +10mins 13secs
8. Davide Piganzoli (Ita/Team Visma - Lease a Bike) +10mins 52secs
9. Damiano Caruso (Ita/Bahrain Victorious) +11mins 24secs
10. Egan Bernal (Col/Netcompany INEOS) +12mins 54secs
