Jonas Vingegaard has become only the eighth man to win all three Grand Tours after securing his first Giro d’Italia triumph on Sunday.The Team Visma-Lease A Bike rider finished five minutes and 22 seconds ahead of closest competitor Felix Gall in the general classification after attacking solo from 11 kilometers out on Saturday’s Piancavallo climb in the Dolomites to win his fifth stage.Red Bull Bora Hansgrohe’s Jai Hindley rounded out the podium as team-mate Giulio Pellizzari was unable to make a significant GC impact having suffered an illness.Vingegaard joins Jacques Anquetil, Felice Gimondi, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, Alberto Contador, Vincenzo Nibali and Chris Froome as the only cyclists to win the Tour de France, the Vuelta a Espana and the Giro.He took the leader’s maglia rosa jersey from Bahrain Victorious’ Afonso Eulalio after a win on Stage 14 and kept it for the final seven stages. Eulalio, 24, finished his second Giro top of the youth classification while Lidl Trek’s Giulio Ciccone took the King of the Mountains jersey.
For the sprinters, Soudal Quickstep’s Paul Magnier, 22, entered the final 133km stage in Rome 92 points ahead of Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) and claimed the ciclamino jersey despite Milan winning the bunch sprint for his first stage win this year.The 2026 Giro d’Italia spanned 3,469km around Bulgaria (for the first three stages) and Italy. The peloton climbed a total of 48,700 vertical meters as they went from Nessebar to Sofia before scaling from Catanzo on the Italian south coast and finishing in the capital.Vingegaard entered the first of this year’s Grand Tours as the clear favourite, emphasised by early crashes that saw potential competitors Adam Yates and Jay Vine (both UAE Team Emirates) retire.The Dane won his first stage on the seventh day of racing, with a solo effort only Felix Gall came close to matching. It was the longest Grand Tour stage in five years with 244km (151 miles) featuring 4,467 metres of climbing — no Grand Tour stage over 240km since 2000 had featured more ascent.(Luca Bettini/AFP via Getty Images)Meanwhile in the Giro d’Italia Donne, Brit Cat Ferguson (Movistar) withdrew after being taken to hospital following a crash in Saturday’s first stage. She provided an update on her Instagram on Sunday to say she had “concussion protocol ahead” and her wrist would “take some time to heal”.The opening stage’s original winner Lorena Wiebes was banned from the tour after her bicycle failed to meet the minimum weight requirements. Her team SD Worx responded to the decision saying it was 0.02 kilograms from the lower limit and they were “baffled” as it had been above when previously measured.The maglia rosa was given Wiebes’ place to Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek), who went on to win the second stage on Sunday, also a bunch sprint.May 31, 2026Connections: Sports EditionSpot the pattern. Connect the termsFind the hidden link between sports terms
