Jonas Vingegaard and his Visma-Lease a Bike team appear ready to finally take control of the Giro d'Italia on the first five-star-rated mountain stage around the Val d'Aosta on Saturday.
Vingegaard and his team have been happy for Afonso Eulálio (Bahrain Victorious) to carry the burden of the maglia rosa and let numerous breakaways fight for the daily stage victories.
Now they seem ready to put their cards on the table and confirm their intentions to win the Giro. Vingegaard has 33 seconds to make up on the Portuguese racer, who has held the lead since stage 5.
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"I'm ready, so is the team," Vingegaard said after stage 13 to Verbania, apparently switching mentally and physically to racing in the mountains and showing his true form after being evasive at the start of the day.
"It's a stage I'd like to go for. It would be fantastic to get the pink jersey, and the goal is to have it in Rome. I've always said that every day you wear a leader's jersey is an honour."
Loyal super domestique Sepp Kuss has enjoyed a quiet race so far, but also seems ready for the team to stamp their authority on the Giro on stage 14, which features five classified climbs.
"It's the right time to take the pink jersey. We wouldn't turn it down," the American told Cyclingnews.
"Perhaps Afonso Eulálio hangs on to it if he measures his efforts, but we'll focus on our race. The stage to Pila is short, but there's a lot of climbing. It will be an important day, not the most important, but we're in a good place for whatever happens. We're ready for the hard days coming up."
Expect Visma-Lease a Bike to be well placed at the head of the peloton on Saturday to protect Vingegaard, but don't expect them to blow the race apart on the early climbs. They are likely to race carefully and calculatingly.
Team directeur sportif Marc Reef remains cautious but also seems ready to take control of the Giro.
"It wasn't a bad situation that we didn't have pink until now. If we take it on Saturday, it would be good. It's the first out of four really hard mountain days," he admitted to Cyclingnews.
"I think from the beginning of the Giro we accepted the responsibility of being the favourite, but that doesn't mean that we underestimate riders or teams. On Saturday, we will be ready for every scenario, but we also have a plan ready to bring Jonas in the best possible position on the final climb."
Vingegaard is also targeting the Tour de France this summer, and so is calculating every effort. Visma have already learned the hard way and the best way that the Giro can also change dramatically in the last week.
Last year, they snatched victory with Simon Yates on the final mountain stage to Sestriere, echoing Primož Roglič's stage 20 mountain time trial triumph, which took the maglia rosa from Geraint Thomas.
Yet they have also endured the pain of Giro defeat with Roglič in 2019 and Steven Kruijswijk in 2016.
"In the past three or four years, the Giro leader's jersey changed hands in the final stages, so we just need to stay sharp," Reef warned.
"A lot can happen in the final week. Things have already happened several times in this Giro. We need to stay on top of things. Our goal is that we want to have the pink jersey and final victory in Rome."
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