"He told me I could attack and ride for myself": Davide Piganzoli reveals Jonas Vingegaard doesn't even need his help

Team Visma | Lease a Bike made another step towards winning the 2026 Giro d'Italia with Jonas Vingegaard after winning the stage 16 with summit finish in Cari, Switzerland. And the Dane wasn't the only Visma rider high up in the overall rankings as his young teammate Davide Piganzoli again kept up with the best to finish sixth, within half a minute of the group fighting for final podium.

Today's stage brought the Giro podium into Alpine valleys of Switzerland. From the start, it became clear that there won't be much hope for adventurers to claim a breakaway victory as teams of the GC favourites, including Visma | Lease a Bike kept every group on a short leash. That was a clear signal to Vingegaard's opponents:

"We started with the idea of ​​winning the stage with Jonas in the Pink Jersey. We did a great job," Piganzoli commented after the finish to Eurosport.

Piganzoli's turn on the Cari summit came roughly 7.5 kilometers to go, perhaps a little earlier than his team planned with Sepp Kuss' turn relatively short. But when Piganzoli set an even more devilish place, it became clear that an attack was on the horizon. And with Vingegaard off the front, Piganzoli was free to try to follow the group with Gall, Hindley, Arensman and Bernal. "When I dropped back, I tried to hold on. Everything is going great in this Giro, we'll try to keep it up."

On a day which saw Giulio Pellizzari and Ben O'Connor drop through the rankings, Piganzoli moves up to eighth overall, almost eight minutes behind Jonas Vingegaard. However his gap to sixth-placed Derek Gee is less than a minute. And with Afonso Eulálio on a downward trajectory following his loss of pink jersey, the overall top-5 seems within Piganzoli's reach.

Regardless of these great exploits, Piganzoli is keeping a low profile regarding his personal ambitions: "I don't have a goal, I want to continue doing my best and arrive in Rome with Jonas in the Pink Jersey," he explains.

That the two-time Tour champion is a great source of inspiration to the young Italian is without a question. "He's extraordinary, it's great to work for him."

And Piganzoli reveals that the Dane wouldn't have even minded to give his domestique a bit more freedom: "Today he told me that if I felt like it, I could attack and ride for myself. That's how special he is…"