"Humiliation and motivation" - How Jonas Vingegaard is seen by one of the Giro's most promising climbers

Tadej Pogacar is the best climber in the world currently, but pro cycling has several riders that have an unreachable level even for the average World Tour climber. At the Giro d'Italia, Jonas Vingegaard is ruling over every single mountain stage; something that is described by Uno-X Mobility's Johannes Kulset.

“It’s a combination of humiliation and motivation. It’s painful to see somebody being so much stronger than you, but at the same time, it’s really motivating," Kulset said in an interview on the Domestique Hotseat podcast.

The Norwegian came into the Giro with hopes of fighting for the overall classification, however he hasn't found his best level and has not been in contention. After several strong GC placings in 2025, the 22-year old looked to test himself, and also found a modest GC field in which he had chances.

Kulset lost time on the stage into Cosenza which initially was a big hit for his C goals; however as the peloton arrived to Blockhaus - the first mountain stage of the race - his form showed that the Top10 would be a difficult goal to achieve. He entered the final week in 21st place.

For the young climber, the level shown by the main riders on Blockhaus was dramatic. “When Vingegaard is going, like on Blockhaus, when I was in the wheel at the bottom and then you’re struggling like crazy and then you watch the race over and you are dropping while Vingegaard is nose breathing. So that’s painful".

Hence, his chances lay with breakaways. He has tried to succeed on stages 8 and 14, but without success. The team managed to get a stage win through Fredrik Dversnes, the best the team could hope for at this point in the race. “When you are not one of the top, top tier riders, then you have to maybe look at some other stages than the natural breakaway stages".

On stage 15, Kulset, who is not in contention for a top result, was in agreement with the decision to neutralize the finale when it came to GC times, as he explains: “The road surface was really bad. It was really dangerous. They knew the loop beforehand and they could have done this maybe before".