Jonas Vingegaard cruised to overall victory in the Giro d’Italia on May 31, making him just the eighth man and the only active rider to complete the Grand Tour set.
Covering a total distance of 3,468 kilometres, the Giro d’Italia brought riders across three different countries for a battle of the best in the first major tour of the year.
The Maglia Rosa was passed to several riders seeking Italian glory, until it landed in the hands of world number two Vingegaard, who never gave anyone the chance to steal it back.
Felix Gall of Decathlon CMA CGM finished overall second in his career-best performance, while Jai Hindley put Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe back on the Giro podium in third.
Team Visma Lease-a-Bike on top
The Dane came to Italy looking to stamp his authority and prove to the world he was still there to disrupt the status quo after a crash in 2024 nearly threatened both his life and his career.
He conceded the Tour de France lead to Tadej Pogačar that same year, and has since then worked his way back to his winning ways.
While he ended up second again to Pogačar in the Tour de France 2025, he surprised everyone when he won the Vuelta a España months after.
After winning his first Giro stage in Blockhaus, Vingegaard went on to grab four more stages in such dominant form that no other rival managed to come close.
The final week saw him winning stage 16 in Cari wearing the Maglia Rosa, before surging to another victory again in stage 20.
Vingegaard’s Team Visma Lease-a-Bike ended up taking home the team’s classification win, buoyed not only by the Dane’s performance but also that of his loyal domestique and old friend, Sepp Kuss, who soloed to victory in the precarious queen mountain stage 19.
Kuss’ win made him the 116th rider to complete a trilogy of Grand Tour stage victories, following his own successes in the Tour de France in 2021 and the Vuelta a España in 2019 and 2023.
By then, Vingegaard and Visma were unstoppable.
“It’s incredible to win the Giro d’Italia,” Vingegaard said after the final stage on Sunday.
“It’s something I’ve always dreamed of. To have it become reality is amazing. It’s such a special day.”
He has emerged victorious in every single race in his programme this 2026 season, and his victory in the Giro d’Italia suggests he is not only back to his best, but that he seeks to try and snatch the top spot once more.
It puts him at the front of another collision course with longtime rival Pogačar when the Tour de France starts on July 4.
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Eulalio, Magnier show themselves to the world
The Giro also opened the doors for new cycling heroes to emerge, including Afonso Eulálio of Bahrain Victorious, who notably had the Maglia Rosa for nine days.
Despite having been bumped to sixth in the GC rankings by the end, Eulalio gave an enormous fight for the white jersey, or the youth classification, beating Visma’s very own Davide Piganzoli.
He admitted that he had contended with doubts coming into the penultimate stage on Saturday.
“I didn’t come in very confident, but all the people I surround myself with always told me: ‘You can do it, you can do it,’ and I think [the strength] came from there,” he said in an interview reported by Cycling Up to Date.
Reflecting on how much his life has changed these past three weeks, Eulalio said the Giro would stay in his memory “forever”.
“I finished sixth, with the maglia bianca, I wore rosa… and I don’t know, I don’t know what to say. I am never going to forget this Giro, never.”
Meanwhile, another fight for the points classification jersey took shape between Soudal Quick-Step’s Paul Magnier and Jhonatan Narvaez of the UAE Team Emirates – XRG.
Magnier showed his sprinting prowess after taking two stages in the first three days of the Giro.
But he lost the ciclamino jersey in stage 14 to Narvaez.
From there, the battle was on between the two, with Magnier taking back the lead the following stage before Narvaez quipped him again in stage 17.
Then in a fast-paced finale he himself had not expected, Magnier outsprinted his rivals in stage 18 to take the stage and the ciclamino jersey back.
Magnier was emotional after that stage, saying he had not expected to win, which made it more “beautiful”.
“I can really thank my team for the confidence. I was not confident in myself this morning and I even [got] dropped on the first climb, then I tried to focus again. My teammates were around me and they made it to the sprint – I’m so happy to win here today,” he stated according to Cycling Weekly.
Narvaez, who also won three stages this Giro, had to concede the fight when he abandoned the race before the start of stage 19 due to a crash he sustained the day before.
Italian hero Giulio Ciccone, on the other hand, climbed his way to secure the King of the Mountains classification lead, beating Vingegaard and Movistar Team’s Einer Rubio.
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