Jonas Vingegaard has one hand on the Giro d’Italia’s Trofeo Senza Fine (the trophy without an end) after winning the penultimate stage of the 109th Giro d’Italia in the Dolomites, his fifth stage victory of the race. Derek Gee-West gave moving up the GC a whirl, but ultimately had to be satisfied with his fifth place a year after finishing fourth. He was also fourth on the day.
Preliminaries
On the final GC day there was little chance that Felix Gall could take back just over 4:00 on Vingegaard, but the Austrian must’ve felt confident in keeping second spot with a minute’s gap over Jai Hindley. Hindley took over the final podium spot from Thymen “Diesel van Deil” Arensman on Friday, now a half minute clear of the Dutchman. Gee-West was approximately a minute behind Arensman and a minute ahead of white jersey Afonso Eulálio, who, in turn, had Michael Storer to worry about 24 second behind him.
1) Jonas Vingegaard (Denmark/Visma-Lease a Bike) 75:13:16
2) Felix Gall (Austria/Decathlon-CMA-CGM) +4:03
3) Jai Hindley (Australia/Red Bull) +5:04
4) Thymen Arensman (The Netherlands/Netcompany-Ineos) +5:33
5) Derek Gee-West (Canada/Lidl-Trek) +6:31
The Course
Saturday had the riders twice climb Cat. 1 Piancavallo in the final 67 of 200 km, including the last summit finish of the 2026 edition.
Seven riders reached the foot of Piancavallo I with a 4:30 buffer over the peloton. Fourteen and a half kilometers of 7.8 percent with Visma-Lease a Bike grinding the peloton cut the septet’s lead to 1:20 and chopped it to pieces. Vingegaard didn’t like something happening to his bike and stopped to address the problem.
Giulio Ciccone pounced from the peloton to collect four KOM points, officially winning him the blue climber’s jersey provided he finishes in Rome. Ciccone now has two Giro KOM titles and one Tour polka-dot jersey.
In the valley, Stage 5 Igor Arrieta snaffled up the Red Bull Kilometre and the galloped towards the final climb of the 109th edition.
Piancavallo II
The breakaway started up Piancavallo with a 2:00 gap. Visma’s pace in the peloton shaved off many riders. With 10.6 km to go, Vingegaard attacked and Gall was only able to go with him for about 150 metres. All the fugitives were caught and dispatched. Gee-West made…
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