'I'm expecting to lose time on my opponents' – Felix Gall braces himself for Giro d'Italia time trial despite dropping everyone except Vingegaard with bold attack on stage 9

Felix Gall took another step forward in his pursuit of the podium at the Giro d'Italia before the second rest day, proving on the stage 9 summit finish to Corno alle Scale that he is without doubt the second strongest climber in the race behind Jonas Vingegaard.

Gall put his Decathlon CMA CGM teammates to work once the breakaway had eventually formed with 150km to go, and they did the lion's share all the way until the final climb, where their Austrian leader made his bold bid for glory.

Onto the hardest section of the 10.8km climb, Gall attacked 2.5km from the top with only Vingegaard able to stay with him. By the time they reached the line, the Dane had surged around him, but Gall gained significant time on all of his other rivals, most notably Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe co-leaders Jai Hindley and Giulio Pellizzari.

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"I'm super happy for sure, to show such a high level again, and only be beaten by Jonas. The team did an incredible job again, all day long. It's nice to have a rest day tomorrow for sure," said Gall at the finish.

"I was not really planning to attack myself, but then the steep part felt a bit longer than it is on paper. I wanted to make sure it's a really hard final for everybody, and to try it myself. In the end, it also worked, I mean, [I was] only beaten by Jonas, I think it's OK."

Gall now sits comfortably third overall behind Vingegaard and Afonso Eulálio (Bahrain Victorious), with a 1:33 lead over Hindley in fourth, and everyone else chasing the podium bar Christian Scaroni (XDS Astana) more than two minutes in arrears.

It's understandable why Decathlon paced given that Gall seems to be in career-best form at the end of the Giro's first week, but it was also because his likely worst stage of the entire parcours is incoming on Tuesday's stage 10 time trial.

With a 42km flat individual time trial set to pit the best GC riders against each other from Viareggio to Massa as the second week gets going fully, Gall knows it will be a day for limiting losses, but thanks to his buffer and clear climbing superiority, he can be confident in his pursuit of the top three overall.

"I think that also is or was a bit in the back of my head today, to have a bit of a gap before the time trial; it's not exactly my strength," said the Austrian.

"I was working on it a lot for sure, but I think it's more about managing it. I'm expecting to lose time on my opponents, but I hope it's not too much."

Gall will certainly lose time to Vingegaard and the likes of Thymen Arensman (Netcompany Ineos), but if his and his team's strength on Sunday's stage is anything to go by, this won't be the last time Decathlon put all of their rivals to the sword.

After all, it was their decision to pace all day with Tord Gudmenstad and Rasmus Søjberg Pedersen that contributed to Pellizzari getting distanced early on the final climb, who looked to be Gall's main opposition for the podium.

Their staff could only describe it as a plan coming together exactly how they drew it up. Of course, in an ideal world for the French team, Vingegaard would not have been able to come around and win the stage, but the Dane may be out of sight at this race anyway – dropping everyone else is huge for Gall's podium prospects.

"We wanted the GC group to race for the stage win today, to make sure the last climb was raced hard, and the final was raced hard," said DS Luke Roberts to TNT Sports.

"The guys did a lot of work in the beginning, trying to control. A lot of teams were thinking it was going to be a breakaway stage; we were probably the only ones with a different idea. The plan came off, and I knew Felix would be good on that last climb.

"We have to chip away at the other GC contenders, and some of them faltered a bit today and lost some seconds. So in the end, it paid off. Whether we could take the stage or not, it was obviously going to be hard to beat Vingegaard, but Felix was close again, and just edges a bit further ahead of the other contenders."

While Roberts, too, could only admit that the time trial is not going to be a day for Gall to remember, he was buoyed by the knowledge that the former Tour de France stage winner tends to find his best legs in the third weeks of Grand Tours. Gall might only be set to get stronger.

"Felix has done a lot of work on the TT bike, ready for this. It's going to be a tough one for him, a flat TT like this, but he'll just do the best he can," said Roberts.

"There will be some guys who'll take some time out on him, and we have to accept that, but we'll strike back when we have our moments.

"We have days where we know we can make time, and days where we know we're going to lose time. Felix is generally stronger in the last week, so if we can be on par when we go into the third week, we know we're holding good cards. But we'll just take each day as it comes."

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