Jonas Vingegaard has been riding while sick, Visma-Lease a Bike sports director reveals

Jonas Vingegaard of Team Visma | Lease a Bike - Blue Mountain Jersey reacts during the 109th Giro d'Italia 2026, Stage 11 — (Image credit: Getty Images)

Jonas Vingegaard has been suffering with some degree of sickness while cycling the Giro d'Italia, it was revealed by Visma Lease-a-Bike’s sports director yesterday.

Talking to the Dutch media, Jesper Mørkøv admitted that several of his team had not been in perfect fitness for much of the preceding week, and that Vingegaard was among those affected.

“Yes, we have had a bit of coughing and tickling in the throat among some of the boys," he told TV2 Sport, before qualifying that the situation was relatively minor, and mostly resolved. Pressed on whether Vingegaard was among the riders showing symptoms of sickness, Mørkøv said: “He has also been one of them, but everything seems to be fine.”

The Danish rider has also been labouring under a heavy weight of expectation, due to being widely considered the overwhelming favourite. He has won two stages so far, but failed to perform at his best on the TT bike during stage 10, losing time to race rivals Thymen Arensman, Derek Gee-West and Ben O'Connor during a time trial stage convincingly won by Filippo Ganna (Netcompany-Ineos).

The under par performance in the time trial led to some people, including Geraint Thomas, questioning whether the Danish rider was currently firing on all cylinders.

Vingegaard remains in second overall, but he did lose another six seconds to race leader Afonso Eulalio (Bahrain Victorious) during stage 12 and now trails Portuguese rider by 33 seconds, a margin the current maglia rosa wearer secured by taking the bonus seconds at the Red Bull KM on Thursday.

The 2026 Giro has been a battle of attrition so far, with riders succumbing to illness and injury and myriad crashes, the worst of which was on stage two, and the list of abandonees growing daily. However, there is no suggestion that Vingegaard is seriously ill, or that he won’t be able to continue, and the Dane remains the favourite.

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Having recently clipped in as News & Features Writer for Cycling Weekly, Pat has spent decades in the saddle of road, gravel and mountain bikes pursuing interesting stories. En route he has ridden across Australia's Great Dividing Range, pedalled the Pirinexus route around the Catalan Pyrenees, raced through the Norwegian mountains with 17,000 other competitors during the Birkebeinerrittet, fatbiked along the coast of Wales, explored the trails of the Canadian Yukon under the midnight sun and spent umpteen happy hours bikepacking and cycle-touring the lost lanes and hidden bridleways of the Peak District, Exmoor, Dartmoor, North Yorkshire and Scotland. He worked for Lonely Planet for 15 years as a writer and editor, contributed to Epic Rides of the World and has authored several books.