Jonas Vingegaard's first day as Giro padrone gets frosty reception in Italy

The verdict on Jonas Vingegaard’s first outing as the formal padrone of the Giro d’Italia arrived promptly and it wasn’t flattering. “The whiners win, and once again the Giro has to take a back seat,” the inimitable Cristiano Gatti wrote on Tuttobiciweb within minutes of the finish of stage 15.

Vingegaard's first fday in the pink jersey saw him pressed into action as the peloton’s safety representation regading the condition of the 16.3km finishing circuit in the centre of Milan. 

After the first of four laps, Vingegaard dropped back to the race jury’s car for a discussion, and shortly afterwards, RAI television reported that the clock for the general classification would be stopped with 5km to go.

But the negotiations weren’t quite over. Vingegaard rolled alongside the lead car once again, as did Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek), and word eventually filtered through that the race jury had extended the neutralised section. The clock would now stop when riders took the bell for the last lap with 16.3km to go.

The finale of the stage would prove a dramatic one, with Fredrik Dversnes (Uno-X Mobility) claiming the win from the four-man break that surprisingly held off the sprinters by averaging an eyewatering 51.391kph. 

That development would generate its own controversy within the peloton, with numerous riders complaining afterwards that the break had been unduly aided by the motorbikes ahead of them. But that debate was entirely ignored by RAI television’s Processo alla Tappa post-stage analysis show, which focused on the neutralisation of the GC and, more specifically, Vingegaard’s role in the whole affair.

Slow-motion footage of Vingegaard locked in on-the-hoof talks with jury president Tortajada Villaroya was played over and again, as though it were the Zapruder film. 

Presenter Alessandro Fabretti seemed strikingly eager to couch Vingegaard as the sole instigator of the entire episode, at least until the former pro Giada Borgato finally managed to get a word in and explain that, as maglia rosa, the Dane was the de facto spokesperson of the peloton.

Interviewed by RAI, Vingegaard put his version of events across, though it’s not entirely clear that anyone other than Borgato was inclined to give him much of a hearing. In Vingegaard’s view, the potholes on the city-centre roads made it dangerous to reach for a bidon or a gel, and he was in favour of neutralisation.

“We obviously spoke within the peloton,” Vingegaard explained. “If I was the only one, it would have been different, but I think everybody had the same vision.”

Speaking on behalf of the entire peloton in a situation like this is a thankless business at the best of times, and even more so at the Giro. Ask Adam Hansen, who was the focus of fierce criticism after he led negotiations for the gruppo beneath the deluge in Morbegno on the 2020 Giro.

From the outside, it’s impossible to say if there was complete consensus in the peloton or not, but there were no sharply dissenting voices to be found among rival teams at the finish in Milan. Netcompany-Ineos sports director Elia Viviani opted for a balanced view, even if that kind of nuance inevitably gets drowned out in situations like this.

“The crucial point was to see the GC guys get to the finish without problems and see the sprinters go for the stage win,” said Viviani, who pointed out that road conditions are always an issue in the centre of a metropolis like Milan for a very obvious reason. “With the traffic, it’s not always possible to resurface the roads in an historic centre like they can somewhere else.”

In Milan, rightly or wrongly, Vingegaard became the flashpoint for a longstanding frustration in Italy, namely that riders who are quick to protest about weather and road conditions at the Giro are curiously quiet when similar issue arise at the Tour de France in July.

“Sometimes we have the distinct sensation that these situations only happen at the Giro d’Italia,” grumbled La Gazzetta dello Sport.

Vingegaard, however, has never been shy about highlighting dangers when he sees them. At Paris-Nice in March, for instance, he was scathing about the roads Tour organiser ASO had used on the opening stage.

In his post-stage press conference in Milan, Vingegaard was keen to stress that there had been unity among the peloton, just as he repeatedly expressed his thanks to the race jury and the Giro organisation for acceding to the riders’ request. 

In the grand scheme of things, stopping the clock 16.3km early on a day like this doesn’t change a jot about a Giro that Vingegaard looks set to win by a proverbial street, and the finale was still a dramatic one thanks to the breakaway.

That won’t stop criticism of Vingegaard’s role here, of course, but he’s unlikely to care too much either. When there was wailing and gnashing of teeth over the shortening of the Monte Pana stage two years ago, Tadej Pogacar was happy to take a step back from the polemics. 

After the stage, which he won, he expressed satisfaction at the decision taken but he was careful not to claim any direct responsibility for it.

Vingegaard, by contrast, made no apologies for taking a leading role here. “I think I would have done it anyway, even without the pink jersey,” he said in the press conference afterwards, utterly unperturbed by the nascent polemics.

You can agree or disagre with the decision taken, but one thing is without any doubt: in Vingegaard, the Giro peloton has an absolute padrone. There's no debate about that.