‘The stress just drains you’ – What Jonas Vingegaard can expect from his first Giro d’Italia

When Jonas Vingegaard heads to the Giro d’Italia start line at Nessebar in a little under 48 hours, even if he is a debutant, in a lot of ways he’ll have a pretty good idea of what to expect in the 3,468 kilometres that lie between him and the race’s final finish line at Rome on May 31. He’s got eight Grand Tours in his palmarès – five Tours and three Vueltas – after all, and his lowest final position in any of them since 2021 has been second overall, with no abandons. So it’s fair to say Vingegaard is very much a ‘been there, done that, got the t-shirt/maillot jaune to prove it’ kind of guy.

Yet at the same time, the Giro d’Italia has always been labelled as a very different kettle of stage racing fish compared to the Vuelta and Tour, one in which more than one top pre-race favourite of recent years has lost their way at one point or another. It’s not just been bad form or crashes or illnesses or mechanicals that’s been responsible for that either – although they’ve wrecked many a top contender’s chances. Rather, as is often observed, the Giro is notorious for its potential for the GC battle to turn on a dime in ways that can take everybody by surprise.