Vingegaard dominates again in a brutal mountain stage: 'We don't need to attack anymore'

Jonas Vingegaard was already perfectly on course to add the Giro d'Italia to his palmarès — and after stage fourteen, that is truer than ever. The Visma | Lease a Bike Dane delivered a double triumph that made absolutely clear he is the man in Italy.

On the long, grinding final climb to Pila (16.5 kilometres at an average of 7.1 per cent), the remaining breakaway riders were reeled in one by one, before it was time for the GC men to settle the matter. As widely predicted, Vingegaard showed with apparent ease that he is by far the best climber in the field. He rode clear of his closest rivals and the solo mission to the finish was straightforward from there.

With the stage win came the pink jersey for the 29-year-old Dane, who now holds a lead of 2 minutes and 26 seconds over Afonso Eulálio. "It's one of the special jerseys of cycling, and it's something I'm extremely happy and proud of," the two-time Tour de France champion said afterwards to CyclingPro.net.

"Now to have had the leader's jersey in all three Grand Tours is something special for me," Vingegaard continued. "I also paid off today my teammates — they pulled the whole day. For that I'm extremely grateful to them."

According to Vingegaard, the plan on Saturday afternoon was deliberate — he and the team wanted to go for the stage win in what many consider the queen stage of this Giro. "We had a plan of going up for the stage, and to take the stage and the pink jersey is something special," he confirmed. "Once I had a gap, I obviously didn't want to slow down. It was simply full gas to the finish."

In short: a perfectly executed plan from the "killer bees." "My teammates all did a fantastic job," Vingegaard added. And the family man shows no sign of feeling burdened by the pink jersey either. "Now we don't need to attack anymore. Now we can ride a bit more defensively. Obviously there's still a hard week in the third week, but our plan is to try to bring this jersey to Rome."