Jonas Vingegaard tested his climbing legs and stayed safe in the final kilometres of stage 18 to Pieve di Soligo, in an apparent test ride for the final mountain stage of the Giro d'Italia in the Dolomites and to Piancavallo.
He jumped away to sweep up a few mountain points over the top of the Muro Ca' del Poggio but then soon let the sprinters take control after they controlled the attack for most of the day.
The Dane still leads Felix Gall (Decathlon CGM CMA) by 4:03 and has won all four mountain finishes of this year but true to character, he was still careful about making wild predictions and proclamations. There were no Pogačar-esque claims about where he would attack.
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Vingegaard is a winner, but prefers to do it with calm and quiet.
"I like winning, it's super nice," he admitted.
"There is something about racing, the adrenaline and competing against other people. I've always been a person who likes to compete with other people."
"There's a lot of altitude metres coming up. Hopefully I'll have good legs and then we'll see what will happen.
"Stage 19 is a nice stage, I'd love to win it but we also have to be careful with the team. We'll talk about it and make our plan."
Vingegaard has always praised his hard working teammates and would seem to prefer to see Davide Piganzoli gain enough time to take the best young rider white jersey from Afonso Eulálio (Bahrain Victorious). The young Italian is only 2:17 down on Eulálio and Vingegaard could sacrifice his own chance of fifth stage win to pay back Piganzoli.
"It would be very big for him to win that one, and for me personally, I would love to see him in that jersey," Vingegaard said.
"I think winning Grand Tours is in the DNA of our team. With four different winners and nine Grand Tour victories, they prove that they can do it. To talk specifically about Davide, hopefully, he's the next one."
Thursday's La Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper published a double-page spread on Vingegaard's early life in Denmark, confirming his sporting nickname of 'il Re Pescatore' - The Fisher King'.
Nicknames are part of Italian sporting journalism's folklore, with Marco Pantani dubbed 'Il Pirata' and Mario Cipollini the 'Lion King' and Vincenzo Nibali 'Lo Squalo - The Shark'.
Vingegaard seemed ready to accept 'il Re Pescatore' - The Fisher King' as an official moniker.
"I don't have a nickname. I've heard names like the fisherman or something, which is obvious with what I did when I was young. I wasn't a fisherman, but I worked in fish. It's a cool nickname," Vingegaard said.
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