Vingegaard crushes his rivals in Pila and takes the lead in the Giro
Jonas Vingegaard is now the new leader of the Giro d'Italia 2026. The Dane put on a collective and individual exhibition in the grueling stage 14 between Aosta and Pila, an alpine day of only 133 kilometers but with more than 4,300 meters of elevation gain, in which Visma Lease a Bike shattered the race to place their leader in the pink jersey.
Vingegaard dominates in Pila to wear pink in the Giro d'Italia
The first major high mountain stage of this Giro ended up being an absolute show of authority from Jonas Vingegaard. The Dane not only achieved his third stage victory in this edition, but also completely dismantled the resistance of Afonso Eulálio, who cracked on the final climb to Pila and definitively lost the lead.
From the start, it was clear that Visma Lease a Bike had arrived with an aggressive strategy. The stage kicked off directly with the long Saint-Barthélemy, and the Dutch team controlled all significant breakaway attempts while riders like Victor Campenaerts, Tim Rex, Bart Lemmen, Sepp Kuss, and Davide Piganzoli progressively hardened the race.
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A very strong breakaway formed ahead with names like Enric Mas, Einer Rubio, Giulio Ciccone, Aleksandr Vlasov, Wout Poels, and Jhonatan Narváez, but the pace set by Visma never allowed the advantage to grow sufficiently.
The race began to break apart definitively on the final climb to Pila, a 16.5-kilometer climb at 7.1% where Visma's collective work eliminated the favorites one by one. First, Ben O’Connor cracked, then Eulálio began to suffer, and finally, the pink jersey exploded nine kilometers from the finish.
With the Portuguese completely shattered, Vingegaard waited for his moment. Piganzoli set a brutal pace until the group was reduced to just a few names, and
Piganzoli steps aside and Jonas Vingegaard flies away from the group! Only Felix Gall tried to follow his wheel for a few meters, but soon had to ease off and set his own pace. From there, Vingegaard opened a gap with devastating ease while Jai Hindley, Thymen Arensman, Giulio Pellizzari, and Derek Gee gradually fell off the pace. The leader of Visma finished crossing the line alone after another exhibition in the high mountains and with enough margin to completely overturn the general classification. Felix Gall finished second again, confirming himself as the Dane's most solid rival in the mountains, while Hindley and Pellizzari salvaged damage in the chasing group. Behind, Afonso Eulálio finished completely spent and lost several minutes, putting an end to one of the most surprising stories of the first half of the Giro. The Portuguese had resisted for nine days wearing pink, but the high mountains ended up marking the expected differences. The feeling now is that the Giro has definitely changed hands. Vingegaard had already shown superiority in Blockhaus and Corno alle Scale, but in Pila, he delivered the most decisive performance of the entire race. With the pink jersey in his hands and Visma dominating every tactical scenario, the Dane emerges from this stage as the absolute favorite to conquer the Giro d'Italia 2026. Top 10 Stage 14 Giro d'Italia 2026 1. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) Top 10 General Giro d'Italia after Stage 14 1. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) – 56:08:41
The Dane is heading towards his first Maglia Rosa #GirodItalia pic.twitter.com/Vcftd5aQpg
2. Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM) – at 1:46
3. Thymen Arensman (Netcompany INEOS) – at 2:53
4. Jai Hindley (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) – at 3:37
5. Ben O’Connor (Jayco AlUla) – at 4:02
6. Michael Storer (Tudor Pro Cycling Team) – at 4:36
7. Derek Gee (Lidl-Trek) – at 4:48
8. Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) – at 4:48
9. Chris Harper (Pinarello-Q36.5) – at 5:05
10. Davide Piganzoli (Polti VisitMalta) – at 5:12
2. Afonso Eulálio (Bahrain Victorious) – at 2:26
3. Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM) – at 2:50
4. Thymen Arensman (Netcompany INEOS) – at 3:03
5. Jai Hindley (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) – at 3:43
6. Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) – at 4:22
7. Michael Storer (Tudor Pro Cycling Team) – at 4:46
8. Ben O’Connor (Jayco AlUla) – at 5:22
9. Derek Gee (Lidl-Trek) – at 5:41
10. Davide Piganzoli (Polti VisitMalta) – at 6:13
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