Marking The Spot

Overall leader Jonas Vingegaard launched an attack during the tough final climb to clinch victory in Saturday’s stage 20 of the Giro d’Italia. It ensures the 29-year-old from Denmark will win the race as long as he safely finishes Sunday’s final stage in Rome and become just the eighth man to complete the triple crown of road cycling’s three-week showpieces. The two-time Tour de France winner, who also won last year’s Vuelta a Espana, is making his first appearance in the Giro and has won five stages of the race.

Teammates Sepp Kuss and Jonas Vingegaard dominated the high mountains for Visma-Lease a Bike on Friday as the former claimed a historic solo victory on stage 19 of the Giro d’Italia, and the latter firmly defended his overall lead. By winning the brutal mountain stage atop Piani di Pezzè in the Dolomites, Kuss became the 116th rider to complete the Grand Tour stage victory trilogy, with the American adding an Italian success to wins at the Tour de France in 2021 and the Vuelta a España in 2019 and 2023.

Frenchman Paul Magnier won stage 18 after a bunch sprint to seal a hat-trick of victories at this year’s Giro d’Italia. Soudal–Quick-Step rider Magnier beat Italians Edoardo Zambanini and Jonathan Milan to the line in Pieve di Soligo on Thursday to reclaim the points jersey from Ecuador’s Jhonatan Narvaez. Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard holds the overall leader’s pink jersey, with Austrian Felix Gall and Dutchman Thymen Arensman his closest challengers.

Denmark’s Michael Valgren powered clear late on to clinch his first Grand Tour stage at the Giro d’Italia, four years after a career-threatening injury. “That’s for my son,” Valgren said as he collapsed to the floor at the finish line of stage 17, holding up a green model his son had built for him as a lucky charm. The EF Education-EasyPost rider has had a long journey back from a near career-ending crash in 2022 – in which he fractured his pelvis, and ruptured two ligaments and the meniscus in his knee – to the top end of competitive cycling.