"That was the whole plan we had": Vingegaard turns the Giro into a luxury training session for the Tour

Jonas Vingegaard arrived at the 2026 Giro d'Italia with the goal of winning the Grand Tour that he was missing, but also with the uncertainty of knowing where he really stood compared to Tadej Pogačar after an irregular start to the season affected by physical problems.

Vingegaard grows stage by stage in a Giro that is already seen as preparation for the Tour

 Two weeks later, the feeling within the peloton is very different. The Dane not only dominates the race with authority, but also seems to be using this Giro as a huge testing ground for the Tour de France. And what is objective is that, stage by stage, he is improving.

The victory in Carì was the best example so far. Vingegaard attacked 6.6 kilometers from the finish and ended up taking 1:09 from Felix Gall, a difference much greater than seen in previous mountain finishes. He has already accumulated four wins in four mountain finishes and leads his rivals in the general classification by more than four minutes, in an edition where no one seems truly capable of disputing his control of the race.

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The superiority of the Visma Lease to Bike leader is such that even within the peloton it is assumed that the real fight is no longer for the pink jersey, but for the other podium positions. Gall himself barely tried to follow the decisive attack before focusing on defending second place against riders like Jai Hindley or Thymen Arensman.

But beyond the victories, what is interesting is the physical evolution of the Dane. In the first week, there were doubts. In Blockhaus or Corno alle Scale, it was confirmed that Vingegaard was still far from his best version. Later, it was revealed that he had suffered from a cold during the first days of the race, although it now seems evident that after the absence of major rivals like Isaac del Toro or the withdrawal of Yates, the plan was to use the Giro to build physical form for July.

Vingegaard himself acknowledged after winning his fourth stage that he is finding better sensations as the days go by. “Yes, I would say that I have returned to my best level. Perhaps even better”, he assured when asked if this performance confirmed that he was back to his usual values.

At Visma, they also do not hide the focus of this race too much. Each important stage seems to be designed with millimetric anticipation, almost as if they were simulations of what will come in the Tour. In Carì, they repeated the same scheme they had used in other mountain days: iron control from the start, progressive wear of the rivals, and a final launch by Vingegaard after the work of Campenaerts, Kuss, and Piganzoli.

The Dane even explained that this stage had been marked months before the start of the Giro because he knew the climb perfectly. “I think it was a very beautiful climb, a very hard climb”, he commented after the stage.

Although the comparison with Pogačar appears constantly, especially after already accumulating four partial victories, Vingegaard avoids delving too much into that territory. When asked if he wanted to match the six stage wins that the Slovenian achieved in the 2024 Giro, he responded cautiously. “I take it day by day. Now I have four stages and then we will see what we do for the rest of the week.”

Later, in a press conference, he joked about it before making clear what his real priority is. “Well, I’m going to try to win all the stages this week. Also in Rome,” he said first with a smile. But he immediately toned it down. “I don’t think too much about what has happened in history.”

And that seems to be precisely the key to this Giro. Vingegaard is winning, yes, but above all, he is fine-tuning details. He is accumulating long efforts in the mountains, improving his numbers, and finding competition sensations without needing to push himself to the limit because he simply has no real opposition in this race.

The rider himself acknowledged that this progression was part of the plan from the beginning. “I think I have also evolved or taken a step forward here during the Giro,” he explained. “That was basically the whole plan we had. It’s something that had already happened to me when I did the Vuelta after the Tour. My total power was higher. We believe we are on the right track for the Tour.”

The big question now is how much of this growth will be enough to face Pogačar in July. Because although the level of the Dane is clearly rising and he again seems to be the dominant rider of two seasons ago, there still remains the feeling that the Slovenian is still the absolute reference in world cycling.

Meanwhile, the Giro continues to be a kind of luxury public training for Vingegaard. One in which, moreover, he is also accumulating victories almost effortlessly.