Vingegaard ready to repay Piganzoli in Giro white jersey fight

Vingegaard strengthened his command of the race with another stage victory in Switzerland, a win he said had been part of the team’s plan from the start of the day. After Visma controlled the breakaway and tightened the race on the final climb, the race leader delivered the decisive move himself.

“We wanted to go for the stage today,” Vingegaard said after the finish to CyclingPro.net. “Once again my teammates were incredible. They did everything to perfection.”

The result gave Vingegaard a fourth stage win at this Giro and his first in the pink jersey. That detail mattered to him. The stage passed through an area he knows well, and he admitted the location added meaning to the victory.

“I wanted to win a stage in the pink jersey,” he said. “And what better place to do it than here in Switzerland? I’ve stayed here quite a lot. It’s a very nice area and for me it is a special place.”

As in previous mountain stages, Visma once again deployed their climbing train one by one, with Sepp Kuss and Davide Piganzoli used as the final pieces before Vingegaard made his move.

Kuss first tightened the screws on the GC group, before Piganzoli took over and reduced the favourites to a select handful. When the Italian swung off with 6.6km remaining, Vingegaard launched his attack. None of his rivals would see him again before the finish.

Asked about his plans for the rest of the week, Vingegaard made clear that Visma are not only thinking about defending the maglia rosa. With five stages still to race, he pointed to Piganzoli’s position in the young rider classification and suggested he would be happy to repay the Italian for the work he has done.

“Davide can maybe also try to go for the white jersey,” Vingegaard said. “He has done so much for me, and he is such a good guy. If I can help him in just a small way, then I would also be happy to do it.”

Piganzoli himself remained cautious, even after another impressive mountain performance. The 23-year-old Italian crossed the line sixth in Carì and has now moved up to eighth overall, while also becoming Vingegaard’s closest support rider in the mountains.

“We started the day with a good plan,” Piganzoli told Eurosport. “We wanted to win in pink and we did it. It was a super good job from the whole team. After I got dropped when Jonas went, I tried to stay with the other GC riders. This Giro is going really well. I hope to continue like this, because maybe there is more to come.”

That “more” could now be the maglia bianca. Eulálio remains in the lead, but Piganzoli has moved into second place and sits 2 minutes 17 seconds behind the Portuguese rider. Mathys Rondel is third at 4 minutes 23 seconds, while Giulio Pellizzari dropped out of contention after being distanced early on the final climb.

Piganzoli insisted his first goal is still to help Vingegaard reach Rome in pink.

“To be honest, I don’t have dreams for myself in this Giro,” he said. “I just try to keep doing my best. I really want to arrive in Rome with Jonas in pink. It is really amazing to ride with him. During the stage, he told me that if I felt better than him, I could race for myself and attack. That shows how special Jonas is.”

With tough mountain stages still to come on Friday and Saturday, and with Piganzoli gaining 1 minute 46 seconds on Eulálio to Pila and another 1 minute 30 seconds to Carì, the white jersey remains very much within reach.

He still needs two more days like that to complete the comeback, but with Vingegaard’s blessing, that task suddenly looks quite realistic.