Jonas Vingegaard<\/a> at the Giro d\u2019Italia.Built for this environment, not overwhelmed by it<\/p>\nPiganzoli\u2019s first months at Visma have not been what he expected. Not because they have been harder, but because they have been calmer.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom what I\u2019ve seen so far, there is really very little stress here. You train well, but the right amount,\u201d he said. \u201cIf one day it rains, nothing happens. You do some rollers and recover the next day. I honestly did not expect that. That is the thing that struck me the most.\u201d<\/p>\n
For a rider coming from a smaller team, the assumption was that a WorldTour superpower would be rigid, intense and uncompromising. Instead, he has found flexibility, dialogue and trust. \u201cIt is not just about getting on the bike,\u201d he added. \u201cThere is nutrition, gym work, equipment, tactics. Everything is looked at, but without obsessive pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n
That environment is part of why he feels ready for what comes next.<\/p>\n
Learning how Vingegaard works before the Giro<\/p>\n
Piganzoli\u2019s calendar has him riding Volta a Catalunya with Vingegaard before the Giro. That is no accident. \u201cI will race Catalunya with Jonas and try to understand how he works, how the team works around him,\u201d he explained. \u201cI will go to the Giro with the goal of helping him as much as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
And that responsibility is something he wears with pride.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I think that last year I was the leader in a much smaller team, and now a big team asks me to do a very important job for a great captain, I understand that maybe I am worth something and I am on the right path.\u201d<\/p>\n
A team atmosphere he did not expect<\/p>\n
What surprised Piganzoli even more than the training structure was the human side of the team. \u201cI did not expect these champions to be so sociable,\u201d he admitted. \u201cThey always have a joke ready. And when they see you a bit on the side, they bring you into the group.\u201d<\/p>\n
He recalled one moment during a six-hour training ride that perfectly captured the atmosphere. \u201cVictor Campenaerts even changed the route so we could stop at a bar where they make the best biscuits in the world. I still have the image of all of us taking over the place with the bikes, sitting calmly with the staff.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is a small detail, but it explains a lot about why new riders settle quickly inside this team.<\/p>\n
Yates\u2019 absence changes little for Piganzoli<\/p>\n
While the outside narrative links his opportunity directly to Yates\u2019 departure, Piganzoli himself is clear that the plan was already in place. \u201cSimon is not someone you replace overnight,\u201d he said. \u201cBut the team trusted me even before he stopped. They told me I was an important rider for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Giro was already part of his programme. His role was already defined. The trust was already there.<\/p>\n
The only thing that has changed is how visible that role now appears from the outside.<\/p>\n
Motivation rather than pressure<\/p>\n
For Piganzoli, being asked to work for Vingegaard is not pressure. It is validation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis gives me motivation and the desire to work. To see riders like Vingegaard, Van Aert, and Jorgenson speaking to you during training, treating you like part of the group, it is something I am really proud of.\u201d<\/p>\n
He is not trying to fill Yates\u2019 shoes. He is trying to prove that Visma were right to believe in him long before those shoes became vacant.<\/p>\n
And that is why he may prove to be far more important to Vingegaard\u2019s Giro ambitions than many realise.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
That distinction matters. Because Piganzoli is not being rushed into anything. He is not being positioned as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":738604,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4104],"tags":[4230,204035,42456,31323,81082,79,180916,16,15],"class_list":["post-738603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-davide-piganzoli","tag-giro-ditalia","tag-jonas-vingegaard","tag-simon-yates","tag-sports","tag-team-visma-lease-a-bike","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116004398255975287","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=738603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/738604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=738603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=738603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=738603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}