Vingegaard embraces new Italian nickname before final Giro mountain stages

The Italian press has started referring to the Dane as La leggenda del re pescatore, a poetic nod that roughly translates as “the legend of the Fisher King”, with La Gazzetta dello Sport on Thursday running two full pages under that headline. The phrase carries a cinematic echo, but the reference is simple enough.

Before the Grand Tour wins, Vingegaard worked with fish in Hanstholm while racing for Team ColoQuick. In Italy, that part of his past has now become a nickname.

Asked about the nickname, the Visma | Lease a Bike rider did not sound uncomfortable with the attention. In fact, he seemed to enjoy it.

“I don’t really have an official nickname,” he said to Feltet. “I’ve heard people call me the fisherman a few times, and that makes sense because of what I did before.”

Strictly speaking, Vingegaard was not a fisherman. He worked in the fishing industry, handling fish rather than catching them. Still, he accepts the image.

“For me, it’s a good nickname,” he said. “It’s quite accurate, even if I wasn’t actually a fisherman.”

The nickname has landed just as Vingegaard reaches the point where the Giro will be decided.

There are still two mountain stages between the Dane and a place alongside Jacques Anquetil, Felice Gimondi, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, Alberto Contador, Vincenzo Nibali and Chris Froome as winners of all three Grand Tours.

Friday is the first of those tests. It is the queen stage of this Giro, with more than enough climbing to change the race before the final weekend.

Vingegaard was asked whether he saw it that way as well.

“Yeah, it is,” he said to CyclingPro.net. “There are a lot of altitude metres tomorrow. Hopefully I will have good legs, and then we’ll see what it will be.

“It is a nice stage and I would love to win that one. But we also have to be careful with the team and with everything. We will talk about it and then we’ll make a plan for tomorrow.”