"We certainly still needed him in the coming days" - Jonas Vingegaard on the loss of teammate and the stage where 'the real Giro can begin'

Stage 5 of the Giro d'Italia sees a 6-kilometer climb at 9% to Viggiano, on a day with heavy rain and over 200 kilometers on the bike. The overall classification battle can open up on such terrain. Jonas Vingegaard certainly seems to think so.

“It is always nice to go for a win, of course. But we will have to wait and see how many guys want to be in the breakaway, because it could be a tough day to control the race,” he said before the start of stage 5 to Het Nieuwsblad.

The Dane was aware already at the start that the stage could turn out to be quite explosive, as traditionally the first mountain stage of the Giro features a battle for the breakaway with riders trying to gain time and chase the pink jersey. The profile is well adapted to an aggressive stage; and the strong rain showers that have felt throughout the opening hours of the stage further aided in the difficulty.

Visma started the stage with seven riders, missing already a victim of the stage 2 crash: “I feel good already. The Giro is going well for us, except for Wilco [Kelderman] abandoning. We certainly still needed him in the coming days, so that is a shame.”

Whilst the summit finish to Blockhaus will truly explode the overall classification, the riders may reach it already with gaps. A lot depends on what Jonas Vingegaard intends to do on the approach to Potenza.

If the Visma rider does not want to attack, his conservative behaviour and Visma's firepower might block out aggressive actions from rivals teams. Otherwise, Vingegaard attacking would detonate the race, still far away from the finish.

He details how the Bulgarian Grande Partenza was in his point of view, and anticipates the race heating up as the days of racing build up. "The first four days went quite well and were relatively easy for us. Fortunately, I was always safe and got away unscathed. From now on, the real Giro can begin.