Visma prioritise pink defence over fifth Giro stage win: ‘We’re riding defensively’

Visma | Lease a Bike have been dominant in their control in the previous mountain stages, leaving no doubt about their desire to target stage victories with Jonas Vingegaard, and the team have been fruitful in their ambitions. 

The race leader put it quite nicely when describing the mammoth stage that awaits the riders. “What happens? We have a pretty hard day. 5,000 altitude metres and 150km,” Vingegaard told reporters, including CyclingPro.net. 

“Of course, today is probably the hardest stage of the Giro, and we have to make sure we’re still in pink by the end of the day. That’s our goal at least,” added Vingegaard. 

The Dane is in a strong position in his quest to win the Giro on debut, having won all four summit finishes, and leading Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM) by 4:03. 

Another interesting narrative surrounds Vingegaard’s teammate, Davide Piganzoli (Visma | Lease a Bike), who remains in the hunt to win a classification of his own. 

Piganzoli sits eighth in GC at 7:57 from Vingegaard, but more importantly, just 2:17 away from Afonso Eulálio (Bahrain-Victorious), who leads the youth classification. 

A time gap like that can be wiped out very easily with the two stages ahead, and Vingegaard had already indicated his willingness to help out Piganzoli in his battle for white. 

“It would be very nice to see Davide in the white jersey, that would be something that we would be extremely happy about,” said Vingegaard. 

Despite his strong lead and with the possibility to help his younger Italian teammate, Vingegaard is refusing to lose concentration or intensity, with the Tour de France becoming ever more prevalent in his mind, and he knows the significance of the final two mountain stages.

“Well, I mean, especially with how the Giro has been the last few years, it’s always been turned upside down in the last two days,” said Vingegaard. "So we won’t take it easy on it, and we will do everything we can to try to bring this jersey to Rome now." 

With a 100% win rate on mountain top finishes in this year’s race, the question is whether Vingegaard will maintain his streak on stages 19 and 20. 

One of Vingegaard’s key lieutenants, Victor Campenaerts, emphasised that the priority is defending the maglia rosa rather than hunting for a fifth stage win. 

"I think Jonas has very good legs, but it's not like we're saying today that we absolutely have to win," Campenaerts told Sporza. 

"We have one very high-profile goal, and that is to take the pink jersey to Rome. I think today is the most dangerous day of the Giro to lose it. So we are riding defensively,” added Campenaerts. 

Due to Vingegaard’s dominance in the mountains, Paul Magnier (Soudal Quick-Step) from the sprints and Jhonatan Narváez (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) from the breakaways, there will be plenty of teams desperate to pick up a stage win, meaning the battle for the breakaway could be relentless. 

Campenaerts acknowledged whether it could be a day for the breakaway or GC contenders for the stage win, but doubled down on the priority being the GC picture. 

"Whether it is for the win or not, that is not what concerns us; defending the lead is. But extending the lead is always allowed,” added Campenaerts.