"We are clearly thinking about the Tour de France in the long term" - Jonas Vingegaard has one eye on the pink jersey and one on the yellow jersey

The Giro d'Italia will have its final week begin this Tuesday, a week in which there will be three high mountain stages. These will be the days where the Corsa Rosa will be decided - Jonas Vingegaard has talked about the behaviour of his rivals, his form, his past illness in the race and the Tour de France which lays ahead.

The Dane had been ill about a week ago, something which hampered his performance in the race's individual time trial. “To be honest, I think it mainly had an impact right before the rest day and just after. So stages 9 and 10 were probably the days when it affected me the most," the Dane said in a press conference, as reported by Wielerflits.

The effects of which have since been defeated. His win at the Valle d'Aosta stage were the evidence needed to be certain of that. "Since then, I haven't felt like it was bothering me anymore. I think I also showed two days ago that it actually doesn't affect me anymore.”

As it stands, Vingegaard goes into the final week with 2:26 minutes over Afonso Eulálio, and 2:50 minutes over his most direct rival Felix Gall. However, the Dane has now shown signs of weakness during any of the race's mountain stages, and there has been no reason to doubt he will be under major difficulties on week three of the Giro.

However, this does not mean that can't happen. “We start immediately with a tough stage after the rest day. A day where we, as general classification riders, have to fight. As it looks now, the final week will also be hot, at least I hope so. I hope for more good weather instead of rain. I think the day after that is also a pretty tough stage, and you shouldn't underestimate how tough it is".

"The stage after that (18, into Pieve di Soligo, ed.) has a somewhat tricky finish; that could be a breakaway stage. And then we have two very tough stages in the Dolomites before the final stage to Rome.” Stage 19, finishing on the Piani di Pezzè after several high-altitude climbs in the Dolomites, is the most difficult day in the race, where the biggest gaps can be created. Hence, the safety net Vingegaard has is just a safety net, not a confirmation of the overall win.

“The third week is by far the toughest here in this Giro. But of course, there are also many opportunities in the third week, and I have already said that we will certainly pick our days in that third week. I’m not going to tell you here which days those will be, but we won’t always ride completely defensively, that’s for sure.”

However, his rivals appear to be battling each other for a podium position. For Felix Gall, Thymen Arensman and Giulio Pellizzari that would be a breakthrough result that none would likely be willing to risk. Ultimately, that can benefit Vingegaard.

“If that is the way they race, I can obviously try to take advantage of that as well. I don’t think the race is over until it is actually over. Anything can happen: I can have a bad day, I can crash, I can get sick. You never know what will happen. So, in my opinion, the race is clearly not over. But if they think that, that is something I could also use to my advantage.”

And whilst Vingegaard's focus is on the Giro, his domination of the race's overall classification thus far allows him to think ahead, and not have to go to the limit at all times in order to save something more towards the long summer campaign that will follow the Giro.

“Of course. That is also the reason why I don’t want to choose to go for every stage. In that case, it can be harder than actually necessary. So we are clearly thinking about the Tour de France in the long term as well," he confirms. "But I am here too, I want to honor this race, and I have the pink jersey now. I also want to try to win a stage in the pink jersey.”

This assures that Vingegaard will still be on the attack, with three more opportunities to take a fourth stage win. Once again asked about the Giro-Tour combo, the three-time Grand Tour winner assures that he believes this Giro will help him reach an even higher level at the Tour de France.

“Yes, I think it can help me in the sense that I can take myself to a higher level. I have seen in recent years that once I have ridden one Grand Tour, my level in the second Grand Tour was actually higher than in the first. So that is also what we are hoping for in the Tour.”

So far, everything is on track for the Dane, who seems to be on his way to beat Tadej Pogacar into the achievement of winning all three Grand Tours. “To be honest, I think I am actually in extremely good form. But as I said before, we still think I can improve heading into the Tour. But I would say that I am not in bad form, and I wouldn’t start this race unprepared or in poor shape. So I am already almost in my peak form, I would say," he concluded.