The 29-year-old Dane won his fifth stage of the race on Saturday and became only the eighth rider to win all three Grand Tours, joining Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, Jacques Anquetil, Alberto Contador, Chris Froome, Felice Gimondi and Vincenzo Nibali in a truly exclusive club. Visma won six stages, including Sepp Kuss’ popular victory on Friday’s stage 18.
Vingegaard and his team look better than ever, which makes my mouth water in anticipation of a dynamite Tour de France.
A big win for Kuss
On the race’s “Queen stage,” with some 5,000 meters of climbing, the team’s plan was to give Kuss the chance to win a stage and therefore join the club of riders who have won a stage in every Grand Tour.
“The main challenge [of the race] was to win the pink jersey with Jonas, and so far it’s looking good,” the 31-year-old American said afterwards. “But when they told me the other night that I had the chance to go in the break, I knew I had to seize the opportunity.”
After another stage of multiple attacks and counterattacks, Kuss was able to join the main breakaway, which had swollen to 26 riders at the start of the second categorized climb of the stage, the Category 2 ascent to Coi. But after the hardest climb of the day, the Beyond Category (HC) Passo Giau (9,9% @ 9.3km), their number had dwindled to eight riders at the front, including Kuss.
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A strange thing then happened on the slopes of the next climb, the Passo Falzarego (10.1km @ 5.4%). Derek Gee-West (Lidl-Trek) “stole” the maximum 6 points available at the Red Bull Kilometer sprint from the rider leading that competition, Einer Rubio (Movistar). In retaliation, Rubio then “stole” the maximum 18 points available at the summit from Gee-West’s teammate, Giulio Ciccone, because he was going for King of the Mountain points.
As a result, Ciccone flew off the mountain in a rage, opening up a gap on the descent and reaching the final climb, to the summit at Arreghe (5km @ 9.6%), with a lead of 1:05 over the seven chasers. Kuss attacked with 3km left to ride, and passed Ciccone 800 meters later. His winning margin at the finish was 13 seconds ahead of Gee-West, who had also passed his teammate on the climb.
Ciccone finished third, at 36 seconds, while Vingegaard finished fifth, 39 seconds adrift. But his GC lead had not changed; the real battle was for the places behind him on the podium, with Red Bull’s Jai Hindley kicking Thyman Arensman out of third place.
But it was joy for Kuss because his mother was on hand to see him win. “I knew I had to push it all the way to the line, and I went pretty deep in the middle, but I knew my mother was going to be standing 500 meters from the finish,” the emotional stage winner said.
“Big shoutout to her and my family, because I really only see them a few weeks every year. It’s hard to stay in contact with everybody who’s far away, but it was really nice to have her there. I’m always thinking of my family and my friends that I don’t get to see so much. This is for them.”
Vingegaard goes long to win fifth stage
Saturday’s stage 20 was tranquil by comparison to the other stages of the week, as a seven-rider breakaway eventually got away and only Visma–Lease a Bike cared. The team took control of the peloton and never let the gap exceed 5:30. When the time came, the team accelerated and slowly diminished the gap. On the first ascent of the final climb, to Piancavallo (14.5km @ 7.8%), the gap was cut in half.
On the second ascent, two riders were still in front when Vingegaard attacked with 10.6km left to ride. The plan had been to attack later, he said. But domestiques Kuss and Davide Piganzoli were tired from the heat and their exertions on previous stages, so the Dane simply took off on his own despite the distance left to climb.
His main rival, Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM), stayed on his wheel for about five pedal strokes, but Vingegaard rode the remaining distance to the finish on his own. He finished 1:15 ahead of Gall, Hindley and Gee-West, another dominant performance that probably was easier than it looked, and it looked pretty easy.
That means five stage wins for Vingegaard, all on summit finishes, and six out of six summit finishes won by Visma. Gall finished second in the final GC standings, a whopping 5:22 adrift, with Hindley in third, at 6:25. If that isn’t supremacy, I don’t know what the word means.
Asked about taking so many wins, Vingegaard said, “I’m a cyclist. I like to win. I want to win as many races as possible. . . . To win five stages here is special.”
Magnier takes purple as Milan wins final stage
Paul Magnier (Soudal Quick-Step) won the points classification in anti-climactic fashion when his main rival, Jhonatan Narváez (UAE Team Emirates–XRG), abandoned early on stage 19 after crashing into a team bus right after the previous day’s stage. But the 22-year-old French rider had already sewn up the contest for the maglia ciclamino, or purple jersey, when he won Thursday’s stage 18, which Narváez and his team were expected to contest, but they never made a move. That was Magnier’s third stage victory; his performance in the race stamps him as a future sprinting superstar.
The first half of the final stage of a Grand Tour is almost always a photo op and a slow parade. On Sunday, in Rome, the race for the final stage win began with 76km left to ride on the 131km course, with attack following attack until 3km from the finish, when the peloton extinguished the final breakaway, led by Filippo Ganna (Netcompany INEOS).
Lidl-Trek’s Jonathan Milan, who had been favored to win the purple jersey – after winning it in 2023 and 2024 – redeemed himself after some disappointing performances and won the ensuing bunch sprint with a trademark powerful attack. Milan had apologized to his team on TV after missing out again on the stage 18 sprint. But this time he made no mistake.
He was of course delighted. “I’m super happy to end the Giro in this way,” Milan told TNT Sports. “I was missing a victory… I’m super happy to win in Rome. . . . It was a really big team effort today, and I’m really happy to pay them back with this victory..”
Results, 2026 Giro d’Italia, Stage 21: Rome to Rome (131km)
- Jonathan Milan, Lidl-Trek 3:05:50
- Giovanni Lonardi, Polti VisitMalta “
- Paul Penhoët, Groupama–FDJ United “
- Dylan Groenewegen, Unibet Rose Rockets “
- Madis Mikhels, EF Education–EasyPost “
- Jensen Plowright, Alpecin–Premier Tech “
- Tobias Lund Andreson,Decathlon CMA CGM “
- Corbin Strong, NSN Cycling “
- Toon Aerts, Lotto Intermarché “
- Luca Mozzato, Tudor Pro Cycling “
2026 Giro d’Italia Final GC Standings
- Jonas Vingegaard, Visma–Lease a Bike 83:22:51
- Felix Gall, Decathlon CMA CGM +5:22
- Jai Hindley, Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe +6:25
- Thymen Arensman, Netcompany-Ineos +7:02
- Derek Gee-West, Lidl-Trek +7:56
- Alfonso Eulálio, Bahrain Victorious +9:39
- Michael Storer, Tudor Pro Cycling +10:13
- Davide Piganzoli Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe +10:52
- Damiano Caruso, Bahrain Victorious +11:24
- Egan Bernal, Netcompany INEOS +12:54
