When Bettiol doesn't send his indolent stunt double to the races, Bettiol reappears. Especially at the Giro. Seeing him at work in Ganna's district (who failed to show) is like seeing him five years earlier, 2021, the Stradella stage. Same strength, same class. I'd add the same intelligence, because everyone knows we're not dealing with a workhorse, but a refined talent. Much wasted, quite frustrated by injuries too, but certainly a true talent. From Stradella to Verbania, the same personal show: the right breakaway, the right effort, then the attack at the right point and the right moment.

If it's not UAE it's Bahrain, if it's not Bahrain it's Astana: an increasingly locked-down script in this 2026 Giro, where you see hyperactive teams and hyperlethargic teams. Between stages and pink jerseys, social capital is divided among a few shareholders. For the others, apparently, it matters little. Go figure. Whoever understands them is clever.

And then, needless to say, there's the other Giro, a Giro within the Giro, a Giro outside the Giro, the Giro of Vingegaard. Even kindergarteners know it: the official Giro could end right here, climbing to Pila, where the real Giro of the regal Dane could truly begin, with the pink jersey and everything else.

From here on, the story is all here. The only anticipation isn't tied to a real challenge, to a duel, it's tied to a monolithic challenge, a challenge without a challenger, entirely focused on Vingegaard alone. The real anticipation is seeing whether the usual Vinge shows up—the one from Blockhaus and Corno alle Scale, I'd say the usual Vinge of always, having won all the mountain finishes he's faced this year—or whether at the Giro there's a Vinge still behind on his preparation work, or even sickly as rumors from Denmark have revealed, speaking of him too in terms of viruses like Pellizzari and Hindley (at this point, let us know who in the peloton hasn't or hasn't had the virus, so we can move faster). Which Vinge? Which of the two will win at Pila?

Let's be honest: as suspense, it's really very little. If the real Vinge is in the race, we're heading toward a Giro titled "Boredom – 2," the sequel to the one branded Pogacar, with a different kind of boredom, less overbearing and less invasive, more calculated and more measured, nonetheless classified by devotees of equilibrium as monotony. We can't make a disease out of it: this is what we have and after all we should even lick our fingers for it, because if we didn't even have Vinge, real or presumed or at reduced gauge, the VIP park would truly be heavy depression material. If there were an authoritative and authoritarian antagonist, the idea of catching him red-handed would be very well-founded. I'm not saying Pogacar, I'm saying maybe an Evenepoel, a Seixas to test over three weeks, a Del Toro seeking revenge after last year's debacle, a Carapaz version 2019 (call Nibali), even a Roglic in good shape would do, after proper overhaul. But there's none of that (Eulalio is an adorable guy, we all wish him the world, but the fact that he's been in the pink jersey for a month and a half says something about the 2026 Giro).

There's Vingegaard and then you have to pretend to believe that Arensman, Gee, Gall are big pieces of the world circuit. But since I'm not in the business of pretending about anything, because I've learned to accept the truth in whatever form, I continue to think that Vinge is racing only against himself. This is the duel: the great Vinge who beat Pogacar and who here has already won on the only two mountains encountered, the great Vinge who is racing over the span of six weeks with the Tour in mind, this Vinge against the Vinge behind on preparation, the sickly Vinge, the vulnerable and fragile Vinge who never truly recovered after the fierce crash. Which of the two? Does he win or lose?

The theme is all here, from Pila all the way to Rome. Every day taking his temperature, checking for any imperfection in the only champion present in the race. If he wins it's not news, if he doesn't win no one else does: he loses.