Jonas Vingegaard triumphs on Blockhaus in Giro d'Italia but confirms 'super strong' Felix Gall is a GC threat

Halfway through the interminably long stage to the Blockhaus of the Giro d'Italia on Friday, Jonas Vingegaard saw the TV cameras were pointing in his direction and - as he has done so many times - he blew a kiss to his family.

Later, as he crossed the line for his 10th Grand Tour stage triumph, he kissed the photo of them on his handlebars three times in tribute.

In many other ways, stage 7 to the Monte Blockhaus was business as usual for the Dane. As widely predicted, his Visma-Lease a Bike squad kept the breakaway under control to ensure that he could go for the first Giro d'Italia stage win of his career.

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Then, after teammates Davide Piganzoli and Sepp Kuss had turned the screws to almost unbearable levels on the lower slopes of the final climb, at 5.5 kilometres to go, Vingegaard blasted off.

So far, so normal, in fact and even Giulio Pellizzari's bid to shadow him the closest was expected after the Italian had performed so well in the hills of Bulgaria on stage 2. What didn't quite follow the Visma's pre-stage script, however, was how well Felix Gall could hold up as well.

Unable to keep on the wheel of either the Italian or the Dane initially, Gall quickly lost 20 seconds to Vingegaard. By the summit, rather than that gap extending, the Decathlon CMA CGM racer, having passed a flailing Pellizzari at 4 kilometres to go, had reduced Vingegaard's advantage to just 13 seconds.

The rest of the field, starting with Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) in third place, lost over a minute, which was the margin Vingegaard expected he could take on the remainder of his rivals after such an all-out attack. However, there's still a very long way to go to Rome, and Gall will almost certainly lose time on Vingegaard in the stage 10 time trial.

We'll never know whether Vingegaard either misheard or actually deliberately blanked one journalist's question about whether he thought Gall could actually win the Giro, after the stage. But as the Dane said, Gall's performance will certainly provide food for thought in the days to come.

"Felix was super-strong, he's shown that many times that he can push a lot of watts," Vingegaard said about the former winner of the toughest stage of the 2023 Tour de France over the Col de la Loze to Courchevel.

"He didn't surprise me. We spoke for a moment after the stage, and he's definitely a guy we really have to think about."

Apart from Gall, Vingegaard's dominant position has become much clearer in the GC battle. He's now jumped up to second overall and has only Afonso Eulálio (Bahrain Victorious) ahead of him, by 3:17.

The Portuguese rider made a very courageous defence of his pink jersey, cracking only shortly before Vingegaard attacked, However, losing half his overall advantage in a single day does not augur well for Eulálio's chances long term. Vingegaard doesn't only have himself to beat, then, but almost.

"We're only looking to ourselves, and what we can do, we made a plan before the race, and we're following that plan," Vingegaard said when asked if he had taken as much time on his rivals as expected.

"There was a lot of wind on the last climb, and we were trying to take the right moment.

"I expected Pellizzari and the other guys to follow. He followed for a while, then I went solo to the finish.

"Today I wanted to go for the win, I'm very happy I could finish it off after my teammates did an amazing job today. I'm happy that I can really pay it off. "

That Vingegaard was going to attack on the Blockhaus had been widely predicted across the board, although how much time he could take was more debatable, given the relative freshness of his rivals. As he said, "For a long time, since I saw the Giro route, I've been looking forward to this stage," Vingegaard said. "I've now won a stage in all three Grand Tours, too, and that's really nice."

Vingegaard looked pleased when it was pointed out to him that Eddy Merckx had also conquered his first-ever Giro d'Italia stage on the Blockhaus, way back in 1967.

"That's some comparison," he answered.

"For myself, I'm just happy with what I did, because I know it's a special climb in Italy, and it was special for me and for the team as well."

"I'm happy I could take back some time, too. Just to take time on my opponents makes it a good day for us."

With no disrespect to Eulálio, it's fair to say that Vingegaard's role as the reference point in the Giro GC has now been confirmed by the Blockhaus performance in full.

So if Gall's above-expectations performance means some question marks remain, Vingegaard's track record in Grand Tours does not suggest he'll begin to weaken in the final part of the race: just the opposite, in fact.

"In general, today was a good day," Vingegaard concluded, "It was also a very, very long day on the bike, almost 6.5 hours in total. So maybe I can improve as the race goes on."

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