"We are where we wanted to be" - Jonas Vingegaard closes Giro's first week with a perfect day at Corno Alle Scale

Stage 9 of the 2026 Giro d'Italia featured the second summit finish of the race and Jonas Vingegaard was able to deliver according to expectations. The Team Visma | Lease a Bike leader was able to take his second win of the week and consolidate the gap over his direct rivals.

Visma had no intentions on working throughout a stage that was pan-flat in its majority. That is because the GC position at the start was already favourable; the reward wouldn't be high in comparison with the energy expenditure; but also because Vingegaard could theoretically drop the KOM jersey ahead of a time trial where he would benefit from racing with his own skinsuit.

"We didn't want to pull for the stage today, and we realized quite quickly that the Austrian (Felix Gall, ed.) wanted to go for the stage," Vingegaard said in a post-race interview. Decathlon CMA CGM Team took responsibility for the pacing in the peloton, allowing both Visma and Bahrain - Victorious to sit in the wheels after a few busy days.

On the final climb, the Dutch team did not have to do much work at all. Felix Gall attacked right at the start of the climb's difficult phase, and so neither Sepp Kuss or Davide Piganzoli had to directly hit the wind long for their leader.

The Austrian put in a serious dig, only followed by Vingegaard. But in such climb and stage overall, there were no real tactics to deploy. Vingegaard was the strongest on the day, first matching Gall, and then attacking in the final kilometer to win a further 12 seconds at the finish line.

"It's always nice with a win, something I'm super happy with. Even my teammates did a super good job. Once the win was within reach, we decided on the last climb to maybe try to go for it."

"Felix did a very strong attack when he attacked, and luckily I was able to follow. In the end, I tried myself and was able to take the win, so it's something I'm extremely happy about."

The gap back to Afonso Eulálio is of 2:24 minutes into the race's sole time trial, and he is now 35 seconds ahead of the Decathlon rider - whilst the rest of the field is already over 2 minutes away.

So far so good for a Visma that escaped major mishaps in a tricky first week. "We are where we wanted to be, obviously. I'm in a good situation at the moment for GC. So far, everything is looking good for us. We're happy where we are."

He can also be happy with the result of Davide Piganzoli, third on the day, a great sign for Vingegaard who is witnessing the breakthrough of the Italian rider in real-time - someone who he will need in the second half of the race.

"Of course I am. He's a super good guy. He's really, really strong. I'm super, super happy for Davide. He's a special guy as well," he concluded.