Cycling immortality for Jonas Vingegaard! Visma leader joins Chris Froome, Eddy Merckx and Bernard Hinault in elite Grand Tour Triple Crown club
Cycling
Jonas Vingegaard has entered one of cycling’s most exclusive clubs, with victory at the 2026 Giro d’Italia making the Team Visma | Lease a Bike leader only the eighth men’s rider in history to win all three Grand Tours.
The Dane arrived in Rome with the maglia rosa all but secured after a dominant final mountain display on Piancavallo, where he took his fifth stage win of the race and stretched his overall lead over Felix Gall to 5:22. The final stage in the Italian capital confirmed the inevitable, sealing Vingegaard’s first Giro title and adding the Corsa Rosa to his previous Tour de France and Vuelta a Espana victories.
It is a landmark achievement in a career already defined by Grand Tour excellence. Vingegaard won the Tour de France in 2022 and 2023, then completed the Vuelta a Espana in 2025. With the Giro now added in 2026, he joins a list containing some of the greatest stage racers the sport has ever seen.
Jacques Anquetil, Felice Gimondi, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, Alberto Contador, Vincenzo Nibali and Chris Froome were the only men to have completed the set before him. Vingegaard now becomes the next name in that line.
Vingegaard joins cycling’s Grand Tour greats
| Rider | Tour de France wins | Giro d’Italia wins | Vuelta a Espana wins |
| Jacques Anquetil | 1957, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964 | 1960, 1964 | 1963 |
| Felice Gimondi | 1965 | 1967, 1969, 1976 | 1968 |
| Eddy Merckx | 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1974 | 1968, 1970, 1972, 1973, 1974 | 1973 |
| Bernard Hinault | 1978, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1985 | 1980, 1982, 1985 | 1978, 1983 |
| Alberto Contador | 2007, 2009 | 2008, 2015 | 2008, 2012, 2014 |
| Vincenzo Nibali | 2014 | 2013, 2016 | 2010 |
| Chris Froome | 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017 | 2018 | 2011, 2017 |
| Jonas Vingegaard | 2022, 2023 | 2026 | 2025 |
Vingegaard’s entry is especially striking because of the manner of his Giro victory. This was not a defensive win built around one decisive day. It was a three-week display of control, repeated attacks and relentless climbing superiority.
He won five stages, answered every serious mountain test and ended the final GC battle by riding clear alone on Piancavallo. Gall emerged as the closest challenger and produced the best Grand Tour result of his career, but even the Austrian was unable to stay with Vingegaard when the Dane made his final attack of the race.
Jai Hindley completed the podium after rediscovering his Grand Tour level for Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe, while Thymen Arensman and Derek Gee-West rounded out the top five after a tight battle through the final weekend. None of them came close to loosening Vingegaard’s grip on pink.
Froome was the last rider to complete the Grand Tour Triple Crown with his 2018 Giro d'Italia win
Giro triumph adds another edge before Pogacar rematch
The Grand Tour Triple Crown also gives Vingegaard a piece of history that even his main rival Tadej Pogacar has not yet claimed. The Slovenian remains the dominant figure in modern cycling across stage races, Monuments and one-day racing, but the Vuelta a Espana is still missing from his palmares.
This Giro win obviously does not settle the debate between the two. But, it does add another interesting layer before the 2026 Tour de France, where Vingegaard and Pogacar are expected to renew the defining Grand Tour rivalry of the modern era.
Vingegaard’s Giro was also his clearest statement since the crash that derailed his 2024 season. He did not simply return to winning level. He produced one of the most complete Grand Tour performances of his career, taking stage wins deep into the race and finishing with the look of a rider still building towards July.
Visma’s strength underlined the scale of the victory. Sepp Kuss won the queen stage, Davide Piganzoli emerged as a major climbing presence, and the team controlled the race with a depth no rival could match. Vingegaard turned that platform into history.
Rome confirmed the Giro. The bigger picture is now unavoidable. Vingegaard has won the Tour, the Vuelta and the Giro. He has joined Merckx, Hinault, Froome and the rest of cycling’s Grand Tour immortals. Next comes the Tour de France, where the sport’s greatest current rivalry waits again.
Kieran WoodDeputy Editor-in-Chief
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He regularly contributes to DartsNews.com and CyclingUpToDate.com, where he covers professional cycling and darts. In cycling, his work includes liveblogs from major races, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, alongside race reports and analysis. He has also conducted interviews with professional riders.
His reporting spans the full racing calendar, from one-day classics to stage races, with a focus on accurate, real-time coverage and clear contextual analysis. For statistics, results, and historical context, he regularly uses resources such as ProCyclingStats. To support reporting on rider activity and training context where relevant, he also references Strava.
In his work, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles as new, verified information becomes available.
claps 3visitors 3
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- 18 broken bones. 78 crashes, among 30 rider per year is a lot. so for a rider over 15 seasons, they will break their bones 7-8 times and crash 38 times.abstractengineer04-11-2026
- i dont think he is ready ot win against the top 2 or the 2nd rung of evenepoel, del toro , Almeida. In the third week in the TDF he was very very defensive, no attacks. i think he was exhausted. right now he needs time not the brutal Giro or the intense TDF.abstractengineer04-11-2026
- Rota is an excellent rider to get in a break with because he always does his turnchapmanesque04-11-2026
- That 3000 extra that the Tour de France is built up in the flat stages
Rafionain-Glas04-11-2026 - maybe this is something else they can protest in the streets of France.mij04-11-2026
- his Roubaix win was amazing. not to take anything away from him - arguably one of MVDP's wins was at the expense of a WVA flat - but so many things need to line up to get one of these. He had a perfect race with fewer bike issues on an attritional course. And crazy strong as usual. Glad he got this done.mij04-11-2026
- Orts was a super smart signing with the new rules regarding cross and UCI pointsmij04-11-2026
- yeah... you're right...PogiSloFans04-11-2026
- Podcast sounds great. Two so called experts stating the f*cking obvious.wrsty04-11-2026
- A mindset that reminds me of Tim Declerq. I loved watching that guy just pound away the kilometers, hours at the front, holding an entire breakaway in check on his own. Bjerg seems like a similar guy. Curling, the team sport.RidesHills04-11-2026
Loading
Write a comment