Of all the teams in the Giro d’Italia without a GC contender, it’s a fair bet that the squad that followed Jonas Vingegaard’s dramatic success on the Blockhaus the closest on Friday could well have been UAE Team Emirates-XRG.
Given the Dane’s longstanding position as the top rival to Tadej Pogačar, UAE have both had a ringside view of Vingegaard’s performances in the past and no small interest in seeing how the 29-year-old fared in his first-ever assault of a major climb in the Giro d’Italia as well.
Pogačar is not present in the Giro, of course, and indeed already won it with devastating ease in 2024, but he and his arch-rival are set to cross swords in the upcoming Tour de France which is both the Slovenian and the Dane’s biggest stage-racing goal of the season.
Talking to Cyclingnews on Saturday morning, team manager Joxean Fernández Matxin emphasised that when he watched the Blockhaus stage, first and foremost he and the team were saddened by the absence of some of their star names due to the mass crash on stage 2.
‘He took more time than I thought was actually possible’
As Matxin viewed it, Visma-Lease a Bike played things very cleverly strategically, with Vingegaard finishing it off faultlessly.
“He let his teammates do all the hard work much more than half-way up the climb, then he made his move. He rode it exactly as he wanted.
“If he goes on taking out 20 seconds on [rival Giulio] Pellizzari every day on a summit finish, it’ll quickly add up.
“To be honest, on the Blockhaus he took more time than I thought was actually…
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