The Giro d’Italia enters its final week on Tuesday with world number two Jonas Vingegaard as the new race leader.
Vingegaard’s lead follows a commanding attack that confirms his snatching of the Maglia Rosa is not a matter of ‘if,’ but rather ‘when’.
The GC competition heated up right from the start of week two with the individual time trial (ITT) stage where everyone had expected Vingegaard to steal the pink jersey from Bahrain Victorious’ Afonso Eulálio.
But after finishing 13th, a not-so-stellar performance from Vingegaard only allowed him to cut down time from Eulálio, who managed to defend his lead in empathic fashion.
Eulálio had an incredible run wearing the Maglia Rosa until Vingegaard proved his naysayers wrong and stamped his authority on mountainous stage 14, taking not only the stage win but also the lead for the very first time.
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Vingegaard shrugs off doubters
It’s no secret that Vingegaard entered the race as the favourite following his victory in the Vuelta a Espana 2025 suggested he was back to his winning ways.
Yet, the ITT stage 10 from Viareggio to Massa brought more concerns to Vingegaard’s form, which many have started to question despite the gap between him and Eulálio significantly decreasing to 27 seconds.
Vingegaard did not shy away from admitting how hard the ITT was for him, telling Pro Cycling Net: “Terrible. It was terrible. It was a very long, flat time trial, and it’s not my specialty to do a flat time trial like this.”
Team Visma Lease a Bike rode safely in the following stages that belonged to sprinters and breakaways, but then went on the offensive on their way to Pila under the scorching heat in stage 14 on Saturday.
Riders were tried and tested against the 4,400 metres of elevation gain of that stage, and only nearly 20 riders remained in the leaders’ group by the time they arrived at the foot of the final climb.
But Visma got to work, with Tim Rex notably controlling the breakaway for 90 kilometres before Sepp Kuss and Davide Piganzoli took over to launch Vingegaard.
Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team’s Felix Gall tried to glue to Vingegaard’s wheel, until the Dane accelerated once more to drop Gall and soar to not only the win but also the top of the GC rankings.
Vingegaard said the stage will be one of those he will remember the most.
“We made a plan from the start with the team and we wanted to control the race and that’s what my teammates did,” he was quoted as saying by Cycling Weekly.
“They did an incredible job all day, it was really impressive how they rode, I’m so proud of my teammates and I’m so proud that I can pay them back, it’s a super nice win.”
Eulálio ends heroic Maglia Rosa run
Meanwhile, it was nothing short of heroic for Eulálio, who was able to defend his lead for nine straight days.
Despite conceding the pink jersey, he remains ahead of the other GC contenders after finishing second by the end of the week, two minutes and 26 seconds from Vingegaard.
“I held on a bit, but on the final climb I lost contact with the main group quite early. After that, I just had to fight and fight all the way to the finish line,” he said in a post-race interview on Saturday.
“Jonas is very strong. For me, it was just about fighting, fighting, and doing the best I could.”
Eulálio was realistic about his chances to finish on the podium in Rome, but the determination was clear.
“There are other guys who are very, very strong. Even so, let’s see if it gives me strength like the pink jersey did,” he concluded.
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Breakaway masterclass concludes 2nd week of Giro
Away from the GC battle, sprinters and breakaway specialists tried to go for other stages, with Jhonatan Narvaez (UAE Team Emirates – XRG), Alec Segaert (Bahrain Victorious) and Alberto Bettiol (XDS Astana Team) all registering wins.
But stage 15 on Sunday, a day before the rest day, saw a different finale that left sprinters reeling.
Polti VisitMalta’s Mattia Bais and Mirco Maestri, Bardiani-CSF 7 Saber’s Martin Marcellusi, and Uno-X Mobility’s Fredrik Dversnes broke away from the pack at kilometre five, with the gap reaching around two minutes before dropping to seconds by the time there were only five kilometres left to race.
Spectators had expected the peloton to reach the breakaway in what was supposed to be a textbook sprint finale. They did not.
Sprint teams like Lidl–Trek, Soudal Quick-Step and Unibet Rose Rockets already exhausted their riders early on, paving the way for a breakaway masterclass from Dversnes, who outsprinted his fellow specialists to seal the stage victory.
“You always think about it on the way, but when we still had two minutes pretty late in the race you are, of course, not believing, but you have to think about what to do and what’s important to do, and not think about what happens,” Dversnes said after the stage.
“I have been joking this Giro that I will try to trick the peloton on one of these sprint stages, so I really wanted to prove that, so I’m super glad to make it.”
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Carmela Calling 
Geoffrey H. Latayan