Jonas Vingegaard on why he decided to attack the Giro d'Italia with 10km to go

And that makes five: Jonas Vingegaard put the proverbial dots on the i’s of this Giro d’Italia at Piancavallo. The Dane from Visma | Lease a Bike did so with a 10-kilometre solo in the final mountain stage, which gives him an even more comfortable lead heading into the parade in Rome.

Beforehand, the question was whether Vingegaard and Visma | Lease a Bike would go for victory again, which they had already hinted at at the start location. And so it happened, although of course it took a whole day of hard work from his teammates.

“As a cyclist, I like to win, as much as possible,” Vingegaard said of his desire to win on Piancavallo too. “We decided to go for it again, because it was the last mountain stage. Everything would be decided today, so we decided to go all-in for the stage win.”

Vingegaard went with 10 kilometres to the finish, which was rather early. Why? “We had to improvise a bit. Sepp Kuss did not have his best day, he said.” Davide Piganzoli — who missed out on the white jersey — also dropped away quite early, but fortunately others filled that gap.

“Bart Lemmen was great, he rode such a high pace,” Vingegaard said of his Dutch teammate. “The plan was to go later, but we had to change things and I had to go earlier than planned.”

“The guys were fantastic again and I had a really good day myself,” the Dane summed up. “Winning five stages and starting Sunday with a solid lead feels special.”

Vingegaard is not counting his chickens just yet. “Hopefully we will get a sprint stage in Rome. Maybe the breakaway will make it, but mainly we are going to enjoy the day and this evening. Even though it will be a long one, with the flight to Rome.”