As Mads Pedersen's memorable stint in the pink jersey came to an end on the Giro d'Italia's first real mountain stage, Lidl-Trek hatched a clever plan to try and maintain the race lead with Mathias Vacek, who just fell short in the final kilometres of the climb in Tagliacozzo.
Vacek has been one of the stars of the race so far, often Pedersen's most valuable teammate on sprint days and over climbs, highlighting his powerful versatility at just 22. But for much of stage 7, Vacek looked as though he could pull off the climbing performance of his career and take over the maglia rosa, until he lost contact in the final 1.5km.
It was actually an attack from Lidl-Trek's main GC hope, Giulio Ciccone, that started the domino effect, which put Vacek in trouble. He had been hanging on very well to the pace set by UAE Team Emirates-XRG on the climb's steepest sections, but with several counters and the eventual winning move by Juan Ayuso not being launched much long after the local Abruzzo rider chanced his hand, Vacek soon faded.
"I tried my best and I was feeling good on the climb, but the steepest section and last kilometres when they started attracting, it was a bit too much for me – the pace," said the Czech rider at the finish.
"For me, a steady pace is always better, but I tried it, and I'm not regretting anything. I was still there with the best climbers in the world. I did my best, and I'm not giving up the GC.
"In the end, it was not enough, but I'll go for another stage and we'll see. It was a great effort from the team again – from me not enough, but I'm still happy with the performance."
Pedersen bowed out of his time in the maglia rosa by setting things up for Vacek and Ciccone, who finished fifth on the day and moved to 13th overall, with a big surge alongside Daan Hoole that cut the breakaway's lead significantly.
"We wanted to try to make a good result with Vacek today, he deserved to go for it and try to get the pink jersey. With a really good result, he would have been able to do that," said Pedersen post-stage, before explaining his last kilometres in pink.
"That moment when Daan and I were pulling, the break still had three and a half minutes, and we knew with the fast downhill and a few turns together, we would catch back a lot of time, which we did. Then the whole drag race started, so that was basically the idea of pushing it for 5k's and then other teams would work."
Pedersen has talked throughout the race about his excitement in working for teammates Vacek and Ciccone, after they used vital energy in Albania and on stage 5 to bring him a hat-trick of wins so early in the race.
"Of course Cicco wanted to do well today, we are in Italy, and we are close to where he is from and so on, so he was definitely motivated," said Pedersen, offering up a simple explanation of the Abruzzese's late surge, which was marked by Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers).
After pulling the plug at the foot of the final climb, Pedersen arrived in Tagliacozzo 15 minutes after his teammates had, and swapped out the rosa for the maglia ciclamino as the big leader in the points classification. He looked back on what was one of the weeks of his career.
"For sure, it was super nice to be in pink, and now I had almost a week in the jersey," said Pedersen.
"It's again something I will always remember and I'm super proud of all the wins, the win in the jersey and the teamwork, an incredible week for the team."
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