Not even a blistering summit finish success for Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) on the Blockhaus in the Giro d'Italia on Friday could overshadow the stunning performance by Felix Gall, just 13 seconds down at the summit. So the million-dollar question is – what can the Austrian climber achieve now?
Previously widely rated as an outsider in the GC battle, with the honourable exception of Afonso Eulálio (Bahrain Victorious) who is not expected to maintain his hold on pink beyond Tuesday's TT, Gall has now suddenly jumped up the unofficial hierarchy to the current closest long-term opponent of Vingegaard.
That didn't change on Saturday's stage over the muri of Tirreno-Adriatico, either, as Gall finished in the same group as the rest of the pink jersey favourites at 1:53 on the day's winner Jhonatan Narváez (UAE Team Emirates-XRG).
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He therefore remains at 3:34 down on overall leader Eulálio, just 19 seconds down on Vingegaard, and if Tuesday's time trial looks like a serious obstacle for him to cross, before that Sunday's cat. 1 summit finish at Corno alle Scale could play in his favour.
"It was impressive yesterday [Friday], but this is Felix's first big major goal for the year, he did well in the UAE and Catalunya in the first summit finish there [placing second, again behind Vingegaard] where he showed he had good shape," Decathlon CMA CGM sports director Luke Roberts told Cyclingnews on Saturday.
"He's taken the next step in this race now, he's been eager and waiting for the first summit finish and we analysed the climb well. We knew what to expect from the competitors and what he could do."
As Roberts pointed out, what helped make a difference, too, was how the squad set Gall up well on the climb early on, with Callum Scotson and Gregor Mühlberger amongst those teammates doing a good job. The Australian and Gall's fellow-Austrian were key to putting him in position in the opening kilometres, with Mühlberger helping to keep him out of the wind. But if the foundation stones were in place thanks to them, it was always up to Gall to make the most of his squad's hard work – which as Roberts said, he duly did.
"He paced his climb well, it was an impressive performance," Roberts said, praising how Gall was not drawn into overreacting when Vingegaard attacked and Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) followed. Instead, Gall kept a steady pace that allowed him to move past the Italian and close in on the Dane, limiting the damage to a scant 13 seconds and actually regaining some time in the last part of the ascent.
"I've done some analysing of previous races by Felix, some of the decisions he's made in the past, we've spoken a bit about that, he knows where his limits are, and he knows how best to get into a good rhythm for himself on the climbs," Roberts explained.
"He sometimes gets other thoughts in his head that can deter him from giving the maximum out of himself, but yesterday we knew what he was capable of doing when concentrating on his performance.
"He's shown he is one of the strongest performers in the race, and he's definitely a podium contender. There's still a long way to go, but we've shown that we're in the running for it."
Roberts pointed out that quite after taking fifth in last year's Tour de France, Gall had made finishing top five in the Giro one of his key goals. With the field thinning out a bit in the countdown to the race and even more when others like Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious) abandoned in the opening stages, the team is raising the bar to gun for a top-three finish in Rome.
Although stage 14 looks like the next crunch mountain stage, stage 9's cat. 1 finish at Corno alle Scale on Sunday could play into Gall's hands, while Tuesday's 42-kilometre time trial will be a much more difficult moment for him.
"It's no secret that time trialling is not his strength, particularly a long, flat TT like next week," Roberts confirmed to Cyclingnews.
"But he's done quite a lot of work on the TT, knowing this will be a key stage, even if it's not make or break."
As for Sunday's 10.8km final ascent, immediately preceded by a milder cat. 3 ascent to Querciola: "Tomorrow is also a tough hilltop finish and the GC gaps are going to shuffle, some guys will have good days, others bad ones and that includes Felix," Roberts said.
"There's a long way to go and then in the last week, when we have the big mountain stages it's important that he has the legs on these days, too. But tomorrow's a good one for him."
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