Cycling immortality for Jonas Vingegaard! Visma leader joins Froome, Merckx and Hinault in elite Grand Tour club even Tadej Pogacar has yet to enter

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’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.

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.