“Just get on with your job” - Michael Rasmussen blasts viral Vingegaard domestique Tim Rex over Giro d’Italia ‘circus act’

Tim Rex became one of the unexpected viral faces of Team Visma | Lease a Bike’s Giro d’Italia dominance, but not everyone was impressed by the way Jonas Vingegaard’s young domestique emptied himself on the front.

The 22-year-old stepped up to the WorldTour in 2026 after riding for Visma’s development team, and his first Grand Tour quickly turned into a brutal introduction to the work required around a maglia rosa contender. Rex was repeatedly used as the first rider in Visma’s mountain train, setting the pace before the team’s heavier climbing weapons took over.

Those turns became impossible to miss. Television cameras caught Rex grimacing at the head of the group, mouth open, jersey unzipped, face twisted in effort as Visma drove the peloton towards another Vingegaard attack. The images spread widely on social media, adding another layer to the story of a Giro controlled by the Dutch squad.

Former professional rider and Viaplay analyst Michael Rasmussen, however, felt the show went too far. “He has done a fine job, but there is no need to turn it into a circus act,” Rasmussen said.

Rasmussen’s criticism centred on the way Rex appeared to play to the cameras after finishing one of his huge efforts. The Dane argued that the work itself was not in question, but the theatre around it was unnecessary.

“He is totally overdoing it,” Rasmussen said. “One day he quickly rode across the road, took off his bike computer and showed it to the camera crew. Just get on with your job.”

Rasmussen also questioned whether Rex needed to stretch the effort as far as he did, given the depth Visma still had sitting behind him. At several points in the Giro, Rex’s turns came before riders such as Victor Campenaerts, Bart Lemmen, Sepp Kuss and Davide Piganzoli were deployed later in the climb.

That was part of Visma’s strength throughout the race. Vingegaard won five stages, Kuss added the queen stage, Piganzoli finished eighth overall, and the team controlled the decisive mountain days with little sign of panic. Rex’s role was one of the earliest and most punishing parts of that structure.

Rex has described the effort in far simpler terms. After Stage 14, he told Sporza that he had already reached his limit before being asked to continue riding on the front. “I was actually already finished, but suddenly I was told that I just had to keep riding,” Rex said. “I was seeing stars and everything else except the road.”

For a rider in his first Grand Tour, the moment showed the kind of engine Visma were prepared to use in service of Vingegaard’s Giro bid. Rex did not merely ride until his turn was over. He rode until there was almost nothing left.

“It is one of my strengths that I can keep riding until the lights go out completely,” he said. “I really hurt myself. When I saw how small the group was, I was actually surprised by myself.”

What looked theatrical to Rasmussen was, from Rex’s side, a rider pushing so deep that the road itself began to blur.

Rex’s work became a small but vivid symbol of Visma’s wider Giro. Vingegaard was the star, but the team’s control came through layers of domestiques doing specific jobs at specific moments.

The German’s place in that train was not glamorous. It involved riding until he cracked, then leaving others to finish the work. In a Giro where Visma repeatedly squeezed the life out of the peloton before Vingegaard made the decisive move, even the early turns became part of the spectacle.

Rasmussen saw too much performance in the suffering. Rex described a rider pushing until the lights went out. Either way, the images stuck. In a race defined by Vingegaard’s pink jersey, Rex managed to become one of the faces of the effort behind it.