“Today it wasn’t up to us to make the difference” says Vingegaard as Giro moves into the mountains

While Jhonathan Narvaez took Saturday’s Giro d’Italia stage win, all eyes were on Jonas Vingegaard and Visma-Lease A Bike in the group behind. After taking his first Giro stage win on Friday, would the Dane take control of the race?

Not especially. The yellow and black jersey’s of Visma seemed quite content to bide their time and let other teams attempt to control a somewhat unpredictable stage. Vingegaard confirmed as much after the stage.

“I don’t know if I rode as if I were the leader of the Giro,” Visma’s Grand Tour winner told cameras after the race.

Which sort of makes sense, considering he is still 3:15 behind Afonso Eulálio (Bahrain Victorious). Still, that puts Vingegaard in second overall, and first among the pre-race favourites.

In his Giro debut, and with the Tour de France on the horizon, Vingegaard appears to be racing strategically instead of trying to stamp his authority on the race too early.

“Today it wasn’t up to us to make the difference,” the Visma leader asserted. “We just raced the way we wanted to race and we wanted to stay safe. There are still many days to come.”

When pink jersey wearer Eulálio did attack on one of the final climbs, though, it was Vingegaard that covered the move. Same when Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe’s Jai Hindley, currently fifth overall, made a move of his own on the way to the summit finish.

Sunday’s racing concludes with back-to-back climbs, a Cat3 followed almost immediately the 10.8km Category 1 ascent to Corno Alle Scale. Another summit finish, and one that looks like the kind of terrain we are used to seeing the Dane use to his advantage.

Asked if that would be the moment Vingegaard finally makes his move for the pink leader’s jersey, the Dane was coy.

“That is a good question. We will see tomorrow.”