“By winning the Giro he moves ahead even of Pogacar” – Italian media frame Jonas Vingegaard’s 2026 decision as calculated legacy play

In Italy, Jonas Vingegaard’s Giro d’Italia debut is not being treated as a scheduling tweak. It is being framed as a legacy move.

Writing for Tutto Bici Web, respected journalist Cristiano Gatti argues that the Dane has “already won the prologue of the 2026 Giro. Simply by deciding to come.” The reasoning goes beyond spectacle.

For Gatti, the decision reflects “a virtue unfortunately ever less common in a world that calculates everything in bank transfers: wisdom.”

At the heart of that argument is the rivalry with Tadej Pogacar. “By winning the Giro, he moves ahead even of Pogacar,” Gatti writes, suggesting that adding the Italian Grand Tour to his palmarès would elevate Vingegaard into an even rarer historical bracket of stage race champions.

Vingegaard’s 2026 season had already been reshaped before the Giro announcement. A winter training crash in Spain, subsequent illness and a late withdrawal from the UAE Tour disrupted his planned build-up. His return has since been recalibrated through Paris-Nice, while questions have swirled around early-season stability inside Team Visma | Lease a Bike following the departure of long-time coach Tim Heemskerk.

Against that backdrop, Gatti sees the Giro choice as strategic rather than reactive. Concentrating everything on the Tour de France alone, he argues, would be “too great a risk, especially with Pogacar around.”

Winning the Giro first would “immediately put the 2026 balance sheet into profit,” because “whatever one may say about the Giro d’Italia, winning it remains an achievement that defines a season.”

The psychological element is central to the column. Gatti contends that going to the Tour having already secured a Grand Tour would allow Vingegaard to race “with a lighter heart, more serene, with a clear conscience and the freedom to challenge Tadej without obsession.” In that reading, the Giro becomes both a sporting opportunity and a pressure management tool.

There is, however, a clear warning embedded in the praise. By arriving in Italy as what Gatti calls “the second force in world cycling,” Vingegaard places himself in a position of expectation.

“He can only win,” the columnist writes, cautioning that defeat would inevitably trigger comparisons: if he were to lose the Giro, questions would follow about how he intends to beat Pogacar at the Tour.

It is a framing that raises the stakes rather than lowers them. A champion, Gatti insists, “does not come to the Giro to train.” He may not need to dominate every day, but he comes to win.

For Vingegaard, the decision therefore carries dual meaning. It widens his calendar in a season already marked by adjustment, yet in Italy it is being interpreted as deliberate escalation. Not a hedge against pressure, but a redefinition of it.

Whether the gamble pays off will be decided on the road to Rome and, later, in France. For now, the reaction from Italian media is clear: this is not a cameo appearance. It is a calculated move in the ongoing battle at the summit of men’s cycling.