‘There’s no chain on my bike today’: Vingegaard’s early joke sets tone for Visma mountain masterclass

Before the Danish rider had taken stage 14 of the Giro d’Italia, before he had ridden away from Felix Gall on the final climb to Pila, and before he had pulled the maglia rosa onto his shoulders, there was already a message over the radio that told the team exactly what kind of afternoon might be coming.

According to Victor Campenaerts, Vingegaard delivered it after just half an hour of racing.

“He said: ‘Guys, I have a problem. There’s no chain on my bike today,’” Campenaerts told Feltet afterwards, laughing at the memory.

For Visma, it was an early sign that their leader had the legs they had hoped for.

The team had wanted to control the stage from the start, keep the breakaway within reach and increase the pressure through the mountains before setting Vingegaard up on the 16km climb to Pila. By the finish, it had looked almost clinical. Inside the race, it was anything but comfortable.

Few embodied that more than Tim Rex.

The 22-year-old Belgian, riding his first Grand Tour, became one of the images of the stage with a long, painful turn on the front of a rapidly shrinking peloton. His face told the story before his words did, and the images quickly spread across the internet.

“I’m pretty destroyed, yes,” Rex told Sporza more than half an hour after Vingegaard had crossed the line. “I was actually already done, but then suddenly they told me I had to keep riding. I saw stars and other things than the road. I’m very happy it worked out.”

Rex’s effort came before the final selection, but it helped create the platform for everything that followed.

“It’s a strength of mine that I can keep going until the lights are completely out,” Rex said. “I was mainly hurting myself a lot. When I saw how small the group still was, I was surprised by myself.”

“We had to get used to it as well,” Campenaerts said to Sporza. “That kid can go so deep. Sometimes you are sitting behind a teammate and you think it will only last another 30 seconds. With Tim, with that body language, you know he can still go on for another half hour.”

For Campenaerts, the stage was one of those rare days where a team plan and a leader’s legs meet perfectly. He described the mood in the squad as calm and confident, even as they put the race under pressure.

“We had a very clear plan and we stayed calm the whole time,” he said. “Everyone was fully committed. Nobody had a bad day.”

The Belgian also pointed to the work done before Rex took over, with Timo Kielich helping force the pace despite not being a pure climber.

“The back door was just open behind the peloton when Timo was riding on the front,” Campenaerts said. “And you wouldn’t exactly call him a climber. It was just exciting all day long.”

As the stage wore on, Visma’s grip tightened. Campenaerts did not see Vingegaard’s decisive attack from close range, but the reports coming back from the road told him enough. Davide Piganzoli had taken over on the final climb and almost ridden every rival off Vingegaard’s wheel before the Dane made his move.

Vingegaard eventually won by 49 seconds from Gall, taking his third stage victory of the Giro and the pink jersey from Afonso Eulálio. 

To the outside world, it was a show of force from Vingegaard, backed by a Visma team that rode with clinical control from start to finish. For his teammates, it only confirmed what they had heard in the opening hour.