Vingegaard takes Pantani’s iconic Piancavallo record en route to Giro victory
With his stage win on stage 20 of the Giro d’Italia, Jonas Vingegaard sealed overall victory, as far as it wasn’t already secured. On his way to victory, the Dane added yet another climbing record to his collection from recent weeks, breaking Marco Pantani’s benchmark on Piancavallo.
As we have seen several times during this Giro, Visma took control of the peloton and kept the seven breakaway riders within striking distance: Jonas Geens (Alpecin-Premier Tech), Manuele Tarozzi (Bardiani CSF), Axel Huens (Groupama-FDJ), Larry Warbasse (Tudor), Andreas Leknessund (Uno-X Mobility), Guillermo Thomas Silva (XDS-Astana) and Jack Haig (Netcompany-Ineos).
They gradually reeled them in over the final 80 kilometres. After the first ascent of Piancavallo, the breakaway still held a 1:40 advantage. By the start of the second ascent of the famous Dolomites climb, that gap had grown again to just over 2 minutes.
At the foot of the climb, Visma raised the tempo even further through Bart Lemmen, causing even Sepp Kuss and Davide Piganzoli to drop. With 10.5 kilometres to go, Vingegaard launched his attack and went on to solo to the stage victory.
He eventually completed the final ascent of Piancavallo in 36:17, beating Marco Pantani’s 1998 record of 36:20 by 3 seconds.
Behind Pantani, the fastest previous times belonged to Jai Hindley, Tao Geoghegan Hart and Wilco Kelderman, who all climbed Piancavallo in 37:51 in 2020, and Thibaut Pinot, who recorded a time of 38:56 in 2017.
Climbing times Piancavallo
| Rider | Year | Climbing time |
|---|---|---|
2026 | Jonas Vingegaard | 36:17 |
1998 | Marco Pantani | 36:20 |
2020 | Jai Hindley, Tao Geoghegan Hart and Wilco Kelderman | 37:51 |
2017 | Thibaut Pinot | 38:56 |
It is far from the first KOM Vingegaard has claimed during his dominant ride through Italy. On Blockhaus, he covered the 13.7 kilometre climb at 8.4 percent in 39:05, taking nearly 50 seconds off Nairo Quintana’s 2017 benchmark of 39:54.
On Corno alle Scale, a 5.1 kilometre ascent at 8.8 percent, he clocked 14:14, comfortably improving Gilberto Simoni’s 2004 time of 15:12.
His record breaking run continued at Pila, where victory also carried him into the maglia rosa. At Carì, he tightened his grip on the Giro once more, completing the 11.6 kilometre climb at 8 percent in 30:50, almost a minute faster than the previous KOM set by Adam Yates in 2024.
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