"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
Cycling
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.
Toughest week of the Giro is still ahead
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.”
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Combining the Giro with the Tour de France
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.
Rúben SilvaEditor-in-Chief
A founding contributor to CyclingUpToDate since its launch in January 2022, Ruben Silva has played a central role in shaping the site’s editorial direction and long-term growth. Before joining the project, he built his experience through independent blogging at Echelons Hub and by producing race previews for Ciclismo Internacional, developing a strong analytical voice rooted in daily engagement with professional cycling.
Beyond editorial work, he has been closely involved in the expansion and coordination of CyclingUpToDate’s wider network, helping establish and support sister platforms across multiple languages. This includes ongoing collaboration with CiclismoAlDia (Spanish), CiclismoAtual (Portuguese), WielrennenUpToDate (Dutch), and RadsportAktuell (German), contributing to a shared editorial vision and consistent international coverage.
He also helps oversee editorial governance across the network, setting standards for accuracy and consistency and coordinating updates or corrections when needed.
Originally from the Porto metropolitan area in Portugal, he holds a bachelor’s degree in Geography. His path into cycling journalism was shaped not through formal media training, but through independent reporting, community engagement, and sustained on-the-ground involvement in the sport.
Over the course of his career, he has conducted approximately 100 interviews across road cycling and cyclocross, ranging from one-to-one conversations and online formats to press conferences and on-site pre- and post-race coverage. His interviews include leading riders, team managers, and prominent figures within cycling media: Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, Mathieu van der Poel, Primoz Roglic, Wout van Aert, Joao Almeida and Tom Pidcock; managers like Patrick Lefevere and Joxean Matxin; and YouTube personality Bryan Kennedy (BKXC)...
Within 18 months of launch, he helped grow CyclingUpToDate’s English-language platform into one of the most-read cycling news websites, built entirely from the ground up. As both a professional journalist and lifelong cycling enthusiast, his focus remains on delivering accurate, timely, and well-contextualized coverage.
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- Thats only cause he rides for UAE. In any other team he would be captain in many races atleast. UAE is just to crazymiguel06-11-2026
- He seems to be the rare athlete whose passion and curiosity about life beyond his sport equals his extraordinary achievements in it. It would be great for him to risk less of that life. He seems very grateful and joyful for what he has already attained.
MarkFour06-11-2026 - As much as I admire and even revere Wout, the less I know about his backside the better.MidnightRider06-11-2026
- Ok, Walt 🤣... Vingegaard would be lucky to get on the poduim. He would not beat Seixas or Del Toro, let alone TP. Then there are the Americans...BD06-11-2026
- So, for starters. Cycling is a saturated, static/dying sport in traditional lands, it will not have resurgences like eg running occasionally does because of several obstacular (yes, I know that’s not a word but don’t make me point out the obvious at your expense) factors. Obviously, like almost everything involving money, there is a desire/need/advantage to growth and that can only come from (developing or just testing) new markets. For me, the WC is the obvious and best choice for several reasons, it comes at the end of the season so is less critical season risk wise, it is not a “pro” team race but nation based which makes integration of uncommon participation more natural. It is a vehicle for redistribution (one of a very limited number of available mechanisms to develop new markers fairly) that the fixed calendar doesn’t allow and it helps make budgets fairer over the long run (moving the whole circus to everywhere evens out everyone’s budget as opposed to having everyone always come to the same location.Jumpyjohn06-11-2026
- Sad that a more refreshing article like this, which could generate discussion in a number of directions, gets completely ignored for the importance of debating the level of superiority of one rider into every single last detail, including a majority of totally hypothetical ones. People complain there is no news in the off season and it’s boring but don’t realise how boring it is to review the same old discussion over and over again, several times a day. In fact, you’d almost think this was a rider fan website. Instead of complaining about the FREE (as long as you pay attention to data use if not unlimited coz this site consumes almost as much for loading Youtube) content, the presence of cv of authors (for the missed obvious reason that it makes it easier to insert extra advertising without changing formats), the lack of quality/checking and depth of articles, why not also think about the content, quality and variety of posts that everyone can contribute to? The platform becomes irrelevant when discussion is interesting.Jumpyjohn06-11-2026
- UAE Team Emirates and Pogačar will officially unveil their objectives at the team’s media day, which will take place on December 18 in Benidorm, Spain. New information from the UAE Team: Exceptional recovery remains the cornerstone of success for the Slovenian cannibal-Pogi, whose sporting manager, Matxin, believes he will be even better in 2027 than he has been over the past three seasons.PogiSloFans06-11-2026
- Yeh, but he didn't and RE beat Pog & Del T 👍
leedorney06-11-2026 - Just my opinionleedorney06-11-2026
- Great win.However will the world champions jersey be simply a domestic for the season which will some what tarnish the jersey. I hope he is given free rein to try and win some races.paultryan200206-11-2026
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