Jonas Vingegaard and Visma-Lease a Bike remain cautious and concentrated at the Giro d'Italia but are counting down the days to finale in Rome on Sunday, following their masterplan that is designed to win the Giro but also put the Dane in the best possible form to take on Tadej Pogačar at the Tour de France.
Vingegaard has won four mountain stages and dominated the Giro so far but he and Visma have calculated every move, every attack and every moment of recovery, as he tries to become just the eighth rider in history to complete the Grand Tour trilogy.
"We think we're on a good track for the Tour," Vingegaard said after winning his fourth stage on Tuesday.
"I think I also somehow evolved or took a bit of a step here during the Giro. That was the whole plan, then to try to take another step after the Giro.
"The few times I've done the Tour, and then the Vuelta a España, my total power has been higher. My body weight has been a little bit higher as well but that's something I can avoid this time."
Denmark, Tignes, and Barcelona
Vingegaard and Visma will celebrate in Rome but the Dane will soon turn his focus to the Tour, which he won in 2022 and 2023 but has been the runner-up in the past two years.
He will travel home to Denmark on Monday June 1 and knows he has to be in Barcelona for the Tour de France on Tuesday June 30. The Tour begins on Saturday July 4 with a team time trial that will be vital for the GC battle with his old rival Pogačar and perhaps a new one in Paul Seixas.
"I’ll stay home for two weeks, and then I’ll go to Tignes with my teammates when they come from the Dauphiné," Vingegaard said on Wednesday in Andalo, admitting that he can't remember the new name of the prestigious week-long French stage race, now the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.
The Tignes camp will be a last block of training and also an important altitude camp in the French Alps and a chance to recon some key Tour stages.
Vingegaard finished second overall to Pogačar in the 2025 Dauphiné but will not race again between the Giro and Tour this year.
Vingegaard and Visma are likely to race conservatively in the two final mountain stages of the Giro on Friday and Saturday. He wants to help a teammate win a stage and help Davide Piganzoli to win the best young rider's white jersey, but the Tour de France is already in his mind.
"There's also a race in July I want do well in," Vingegaard said in Andalo on Wednesday.
"I went pretty deep to win stage 16. I'd still like to win another stage but you also need to think about what is coming up."
Subscribe to Cyclingnews for unlimited access to our coverage of the Giro d'Italia. Enjoy unrivaled reporting from our team of journalists on the ground, including breaking news, analysis, and more, from every stage as it happens, plus access to the Cyclingnews app to follow the action on the go! Find out more.
