'He is going to be up there' - What the Giro peloton makes of Vingegaard vs Pogacar in the Tour
On the morning of stage 20, with Piancavallo waiting at the end of another brutal day in the mountains, the question around the Giro d’Italia is no longer whether Jonas Vingegaard is the strongest rider in the race but what his dominance might mean for July.
Vingegaard has been on a rampage this season. After victories at Paris-Nice and Catalunya, he has carried that same authority into the Giro, riding with a level of control that has left rivals searching for both answers and adjectives.
Across the peloton, riders who have spent years measuring themselves against the very best are now being asked the same question: is this the best version of Jonas Vingegaard we have ever seen?
Wout Poels, the veteran Dutchman riding for Unibet Rose Rockets, did not hesitate to praise him.
“He is going very solid in all the races he does,” Poels said to CyclingPro.net before the start. “I can only take my hat off to him, how he is riding here.”
Asked whether Pogačar might be watching with concern, Poels smiled at the scale of the question.
“Maybe Tadej is happy that Jonas is here and that he already has this race in the legs,” he said. “But Tadej is also from another planet. We will see in the Tour.”
That has become the natural framing of this Giro. Vingegaard may be ruling Italy, but the shadow of July is never far away. Everything he is doing is being interpreted through the lens of what could happen when he meets Pogačar again.
Ben O’Connor, riding for Jayco AlUla, was cautious about drawing direct comparisons between the Giro and the Tour, although he made it clear that the Dane’s level is beyond doubt.
“The Tour is harder, to be honest,” O’Connor told CyclingPro.net. “I remember last year I was already pretty pinned after the first ten days. It is a different story here. But clearly it is going well enough. There is no doubt about that. I do not doubt he is going to be up there.”
'One of the strongest riders in history'
Egan Bernal, one of the few active riders who knows what it takes to win both the Giro and the Tour, was also asked whether performances in Italy can offer a real indication of what might happen in France.
Bernal did not overcomplicate it. From where he stands, Vingegaard has simply been the strongest rider in the race by some distance.
“He is one of the strongest riders in history,” Bernal said to CyclingPro.net. “I think he can do it really well. He is showing he is on another level in this race. He is a few steps ahead of us.”
For now, that is the view from the Giro. The Tour will be a different race, with Pogačar waiting, but Vingegaard has already made July feel a little more loaded.
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