Jonas Vingegaard has joined one of cycling’s most exclusive clubs after winning the Giro d’Italia and completing the set of all three Grand Tours.
The Danish rider’s victory in Italy means he has now won the Tour de France twice, the Vuelta a España once and the Giro d’Italia once. Only seven male riders before him had managed to win all three of cycling’s biggest stage races.
The achievement has added another layer to a career already defined by calm authority, mountain dominance and an ability to deliver in the sport’s hardest races. Yet the Giro project was not presented as a lifelong obsession. It began more quietly, with a private meeting in Denmark.
According to B.T., the idea was shaped after Vingegaard’s Vuelta a España victory, when Team Visma | Lease a Bike began discussing whether the Giro should become his next major target.
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A plan made in Denmark
The decisive conversation took place at Vingegaard’s home in Denmark. Richard Plugge, the team’s managing director, and Jacco Verhaeren, head of the sportive management team, travelled there to discuss the next step in the Dane’s career.
The meeting was not simply about adding another race to the calendar. It was about whether Vingegaard should attempt to complete cycling’s Grand Tour trilogy while still in the prime of his career.
That decision now looks decisive. Vingegaard arrived at the Giro as a favourite and left Rome in pink, having dominated the race and turned a bold plan into a historic result.
A rare place in cycling history
Vingegaard’s Giro win gives him four Grand Tour titles in total: the Tour de France in 2022 and 2023, the Vuelta a España in 2025 and the Giro d’Italia in 2026.
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The victory places him alongside some of the sport’s most celebrated names, including Alberto Contador, Vincenzo Nibali, Chris Froome, Bernard Hinault, Jacques Anquetil, Felice Gimondi and Eddy Merckx.
After the final stage in Rome, Vingegaard was visibly moved by the scale of the achievement. Giro d’Italia quoted him as saying: “It’s incredible to see my name engraved on the Trofeo Senza Fine. It’s something I’ll remember for the rest of my life.”
He added: “To now become part of the exclusive group of eight riders who have managed to win all three Grand Tours is simply incredible.”
Plugge sees more to come
For Team Visma | Lease a Bike, the Giro triumph also reinforced the sense that Vingegaard remains capable of shaping the sport’s biggest races for years to come.
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According to Eurosport’s Rasmus Arvad Christensen, Plugge praised both the rider and the team after Vingegaard’s fifth stage win at the Giro.
“It is fantastic how the team rode again today. Everyone is paying the price for these three weeks, and Vingegaard is still the strongest. It is really nice to see. It is hard to understand that he takes another victory,” Plugge said.
He also described the wider achievement in historic terms: “We are writing history again with a rider who has now won all three Grand Tours as the first rider in this era. It is fantastic.”
The Tour now waits
The Giro triumph has inevitably sharpened attention on the Tour de France, which begins on 4 July. Vingegaard will be one of the central figures again, with Tadej Pogacar expected to stand in his way.
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Winning the Giro and Tour in the same season remains one of cycling’s most demanding feats. Vingegaard has given himself the chance to attempt it, but the road to Paris will be far harder than any debate about his place in Danish sport.
That debate, however, is already underway. With four Grand Tour titles and the full trilogy now complete, Vingegaard’s case as one of Denmark’s greatest athletes has become stronger than ever.
The story of the Giro win is told in Team Visma | Lease a Bike’s documentary “Woven Into History: Vingegaard’s Trilogy,” which follows the campaign behind a victory that moved him into cycling’s highest company.
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