Jonas Vingegaard has the pink finish he wanted: 'Things can still go wrong, so we wanted to take the first option'

Jonas Vingegaard has his stage win — and the accompanying photo — in the pink jersey . The Dane of Visma | Lease a Bike showed on Tuesday in Carì that he is simply the strongest rider in this Giro d'Italia. Afterwards he was full of praise for the excellent work his teammates did to set him up on the Swiss mountain stage.

Although the expectation beforehand was that the breakaway would take the stage, Visma | Lease a Bike saw things differently. "Well... my team-mates and I were really motivated to win a stage in the pink jersey. Of course things can still go wrong, so we chose to take the first option" .

"If we had failed, we would still have had chances left," explains the eventual winner. From Timo Kielich to Davide Piganzoli, Visma | Lease a Bike were again fully on point. "I am — again — very happy that I can thank them at all" .

"It was a hard, but beautiful climb," Vingegaard said about the final mountain of the day, where he made the difference. "It lasted half an hour and after the fantastic work from my team-mates from the start, it feels really good to finish it off like this. They did the setup work and I only had to bring it home," the Dane repeated.

Vingegaard was supported not only by his team-mates, but also by Danish fans. On the road he passed a banner saying 'Team Galli'. "Team Galli are good friends of mine and I am very happy that they could come and watch. In any case, we are here in Switzerland in an environment I know very well," said the stage winner.

That takes the tally to six. Tadej Pogačar took six Giro wins two years ago, and Vingegaard is now closing in on that figure too. "I’m taking it day by day. I have four now, and we’ll see how we approach the rest of the week," he said after the stage.