'It was terrible' - Vingegaard off-key but still on course after Giro time trial

“Terrible,” Jonas Vingegaard smiled when he arrived in the mixed zone in Massa, but he wasn’t entirely joking. Vingegaard has delivered some astounding time trial performances in his career, most notably at Combloux on the 2023 Tour de France, but this was not one of them.

It was, of course, a very different kind of test, as the Giro d’Italia’s stage 10 time trial was a flat and fast 42km run from Viareggio to Massa. While many had expected Vingegaard to make hefty gains on his GC rivals along the Tuscan coast, it didn’t quite play out that way.

“It was terrible – it was a very long, flat time trial,” Vingegaard said. “And it’s not my speciality to do a flat time trial like this. I’ve never been super good in it and, to be honest, I think I came through it pretty well today.”

Vingegaard finished 13th on the stage, exactly three minutes down on winner Filippo Ganna, and he lost 1:06 on the Italian’s Netcompany-Ineos teammate Thymen Arensman. Derek Gee-West (Lidl-Trek) and Ben O’Connor (Jayco-AlUla) also gained some ground on Vingegaard, while he only picked up 18 seconds on an ill Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe).

This was hardly a vintage showing from Vingegaard, and it leaves him still 27 seconds short of the pink jersey of Afonso Eulálio (Bahrain Victorious). On the other hand, he is now just under two minutes clear of Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM), the man who pushed him closest on the two summit finishes to date.

“I think a completely flat time trial like this benefits the bigger guys a bit more. The more power you have the better it is,” Vingegaard said, though he declared himself satisfied with the lie of the land in the overall standings.

“I think I’m in a good spot at the moment. I’m pretty close to the pink jersey now. Of course, it would have been nice to have the pink jersey already, because I think every day in a jersey is a pleasure and something you have to be happy about. But I’m also happy with the blue jersey, it’s not a problem, and in the end, I think I’m in a good spot.”

It was clear from the first check after 16.7km that Vingegaard was not going to replicate the kind of time trials he produced on the Tours of 2022 and 2023. He was already 26 seconds behind Arensman there, and the gap would grow steadily on the back end of the course. Meanwhile, riders like Pellizzari and his Red Bull teammate Jai Hindley limited the damage to Vingegaard surprisingly well.

“I’m happy it’s finished and behind us,” Vingegaard said. “I tried to hold back a bit at the start because it was a very long time trial. I didn’t lose too much time to Arensman and my other rivals, so I think in the end it was a good day.”