Lidl-Trek's Mathias Vacek continued to be one of the riders of this year's Giro d'Italia on the gravel stage 9 to Siena, producing an almighty bridge across to the front group in the final 40km, before ultimately being dropped by new pink jersey, Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and stage winner Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike).
Vacek found himself in the second group on the road as the chaos unfolded after a big crash on the second of five gravel sectors, which he got caught behind, but attacked away 34km from the finish with Chris Harper (Jayco-AlUla), before making contact with the leaders 10km later.
He joined Del Toro, Van Aert and Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) after an epic solo chase away from Harper, but it turned out that he'd spent too much energy after hesitating whether to go or stay with Lidl-Trek's GC man Giulio Ciccone.
When Del Toro surged on the penultimate sector and Colle Pinzuto, it was clear that Vacek and Bernal didn't have it, with both riders dropping under the Mexican's pressure.
"I was feeling super good today. In the second sector with the crash, I stayed in the group behind. I had to make it back and restart, but I had the information that Cicco was dropped as well," said Vacek at the finish line.
"I just wanted to go, because I knew if I made it in the front as fast as possible, I could recover, maybe stay with them, but I made a bit of hesitation between waiting for Cicco and going for it.
"Del Toro started attacking a bit too much on the last sector, and I got dropped with Bernal."
After he knew the chance for victory was done, having been afforded the freedom to chase his own ambitions, the Czech rider waited up and duly folded back into a domestique role for Ciccone, with main overall favourite Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) over a minute behind after a crash and puncture.
Vacek pulled hard in the final phase of racing, with Ciccone eventually blasting up the Via Santa Caterina and around the final few corners past Richard Carapaz (EF Education EasyPost) to take third on the day and gain GC team on many of his rivals.
"Then, I was pushing for Cicco to work full gas for him to make a big gap on Roglič. Still, it was a good job," finished Vacek.
As the 108th Giro reached its second rest day, Ciccone sits fifth overall on GC, 1:41 away from the lead of Del Toro and well in the fight for the podium and pink jersey with the high mountains still to come.
22-year-old Vacek may not have had the day he wanted in Siena, eventually crossing the line 14th after characterising much of the final 70km on the gravel, alongside his teammates.
But maglia ciclamino Mads Pedersen, who did a lot of the early pacing for Vacek and Ciccone, still thinks it won't be long before the Czech rider has his arms in the air at a Grand Tour.
"Our plan was to make sure we came into the first gravel sector first, and then we wanted to split it so Cicco had less stress for the rest of the race, and I think we did manage really well with that," said Pedersen as he recalled Lidl-Trek's active day.
"We knew already from the beginning of the race that Vacek was this strong, again today he showed really good shape, so his time will come."
Subscribe to Cyclingnews for unlimited access to our 2025 Giro d'Italia coverage. Our team on the ground will bring you all the breaking news, reports, analysis and more from every stage of the Italian Grand Tour. Find out more.
