Jonas Vingegaard Dominates Race of the Two Seas

In the 59th edition of this early-season classic, Vingegaard made his mark when he attacked 29 kilometers before the finish line on Stage 5. The two-time reigning Tour de France winner dropped a Pogačar-esque attack just over halfway up the 12-kilometer San Giacomo climb. Like Pogi, no contender was able to respond to Vingegaard. At the end of the day, he won the stage and took the general classification lead.

“We always had the plan to give it a shot today,” said Vingegaard after the stage win. “The plan was perfectly executed and I’m really happy to pay the guys back. We wanted to go full gas from the bottom of the climb with Ben [Tulett] taking over from Attila [Valter] and then Steven [Kruijswijk].”

On Stage 6, the Dane decisively dropped the hammer again. As Bora-Hansgrohe riders maintained the pace on the front towards Monte Petrano—a 10.1-kilometer climb with 8% elevation—Jai Hindley (Bora–Hansgrohe) launched an attack. Vingegaard counterattacked and climbed away from his closest rivals six kilometers from the finish.

“Jonas has a different gear,” said Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates).

The final stage, which started and ended in San Benedetto del Tronto, was rated as the least difficult of the seven stages. Despite the 154-kilometer route, riders were heavy on the gas, averaging over 47 kilometers per hour—the fastest stage ever recorded in the race's history.

“Straight from the start, it was a very strong breakaway,” said Vingegaard in a post-race interview. “The sprinters knew that if they wanted to sprint today, they had to go very hard. And they did so.”

The GC contenders stayed close as the sprinters turned up the pressure in the final meters. Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) outsprinted Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Decueninck) for his second stage win of the week, even after shoulder-to-shoulder contact with Philipsen.

Vingegaard finished one minute and 24 seconds ahead of second-place GC finisher Ayuso and one minute and 52 seconds ahead of Hindley, who rounded out the podium.