"You’re not going to take six minutes out of Eulalio in one stage" - Jonas Vingegaard sends warning as Visma face their own Sepp Kuss-style problem at the Giro d’Italia

Jonas Vingegaard has spent the opening week of the 2026 Giro d’Italia exactly where Team Visma | Lease a Bike wanted him. Safe, sharp, out of the Maglia Rosa and still ahead of the first major mountain test.

The complication is that the race has now gained a very different kind of leader. Afonso Eulalio’s move into pink has created a gap large enough that even Vingegaard is no longer treating it as something that can simply be wiped away in one afternoon.

Speaking to Cycling Pro Net before stage 6, Vingegaard made clear that the new race situation cannot be dismissed, even with Blockhaus looming on stage 7.

“No, for sure. I mean, now he’s in the jersey with more than six minutes, so it’s a good gap he has,” said Vingegaard. “And I think he can keep it for a bit of time for sure. Because yeah, even with tomorrow’s Blockhaus stage, he’s a good rider. So it’s not like you’re just going to take six minutes out of him in one stage. So yeah, he will keep the jersey for a bit of time. That’s for sure.”

For Visma, the scenario carries an obvious echo. In the 2023 Vuelta a Espana, Sepp Kuss built a large early advantage from a breakaway and eventually turned it into overall victory, with Vingegaard and Primoz Roglic finishing second and third behind him.

Eulalio is not Kuss, and the Giro still has most of its decisive climbing to come, but the problem for the favourites is similar in principle. A rider with enough strength to survive deep into the race has been allowed to build a margin that changes the tactical equation.

Until now, Vingegaard’s Giro had been defined by control rather than urgency. Visma were content not to take pink too early, avoiding the added media and recovery burden that comes with leading a Grand Tour from the opening week. That logic remains sound, but the situation is no longer only about avoiding responsibility. It is also about making sure the race does not drift too far away.

The Dane still sounded calm after surviving another difficult day on stage 5. “I’m still feeling good,” he said. “I’m happy that I made it through yesterday. It was a long day, a wet day, cold day. So obviously, yeah, that was the most important, to just get safely through it. And we didn’t lose any time. I think my teammates did a good job yesterday.”

Vingegaard also suggested the conditions may suit him better than some of his rivals. “I’m normally okay in the hard conditions,” he explained. “I think some other guys suffer a bit more than I do. Obviously, yeah, it’s about trying to stay warm and we did that pretty well as a team yesterday, not only me. We made it through safely.”

The first serious answer should come on Blockhaus. Vingegaard stopped short of saying Visma would take full responsibility for blowing the race apart, but he accepted that the climb will expose the true hierarchy among the GC contenders.

“I think the Blockhaus is a climb where you cannot hide,” he said. “It will for sure be a stage where it will be a fight for the GC guys and yeah, who knows, maybe we fight for the stage win. That would also be nice, but it’s not only up to us, also other teams as well.”

That final point matters. Visma may have the strongest favourite in the race, but the burden of reducing Eulalio’s advantage does not belong only to them. Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe, Lidl - Trek, Netcompany INEOS and other teams with GC ambitions now have to decide how much they are willing to invest before the final week.

Vingegaard also explained Visma’s use of Victor Campenaerts as a satellite rider on stage 5, a move that hinted at the team’s willingness to prepare for several scenarios without fully committing to an all-out GC offensive.

“We always think that on a stage like this, we showed it many times, that it’s good to have a satellite rider in case of bad luck or whether you want to try something,” Vingegaard said. “It’s never a bad thing to have a guy in the front who can always wait. And that’s what our plan was yesterday.”

Asked whether he had considered attacking himself, Vingegaard replied: “The gap was so close that even if you wanted to attack, then it didn’t make any sense.”

That may change quickly. Blockhaus is the first place where waiting too long could become costly, but Vingegaard’s warning is already clear. Eulalio’s advantage is real, and Visma’s Giro may now be about more than simply choosing the perfect moment to strike.