Visma and Vingegaard want it all on Giro’s final mountain stage

It wants the stage as well. A win would allow the Dutch team to complete a clean sweep of the mountain-top finishes at this Giro.

“I would love to win today,” Vingegaard said before the start to CyclingPro.net. “Of course, our main goal is to keep the pink jersey, but obviously we also want to try to go for the stage.”

The final mountain test of the race is unlikely to be simple. Vingegaard knows that with only one real chance left before Rome, the fight to get into the breakaway and chase the win will be fierce. Visma has controlled much of this Giro, but even the strongest team in the race will have to decide how much energy it wants to spend before the final weekend is done.

“We are not the only ones in the peloton,” Vingegaard said. “Today is the last day, so it will be a big fight. We just have to see if we can control it.”

The mood inside the team, though, is clearly high. Friday’s stage win for Sepp Kuss gave Visma another reason to celebrate in a race it has already bent firmly in its direction. For Vingegaard, Kuss’ victory seemed to mean almost as much as one of his own.

“It is really special when Sepp wins,” he said. “He is a guy who always sacrifices himself for everybody else. For him to be able to win himself is something everyone in the team is extremely happy about.”

Kuss was still trying to take it in on Saturday morning. The American said the adrenaline of the victory had not fully settled, partly because the Giro is not finished yet and the team still has a job to complete.

“I was still a bit in shock,” Kuss said. “You cannot fully absorb it because you have to stay sharp for what is coming. In the stage I just tried to soak up the moment and enjoy it as much as possible. I think after the race I will be able to reflect on it a bit more.”

That balance has become a theme for Visma. The team is winning now, but July is already close. The Tour de France will demand another reset and another confrontation at the very top of the sport. Kuss said that refocus comes naturally when the next goal is big enough, but he also admitted it is easy to move on too quickly.

“You quickly recalibrate,” he said. “The main thing is not losing that sense of enjoying what you have accomplished. That is easy to forget. Any cyclist at a high level is always looking for the next goal or the next improvement. You have to find the balance between that and enjoying what you have done.”

For now, the team is focused on taking a sixth win at this Giro and completing a clean sweep of the race’s mountain stages with victory at Piancavallo.