It seemed almost certain that Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) would move into the maglia rosa on the flat and fast 42km time trial on stage 10 at the Giro d'Italia, but his time of 48:53 was not enough to unseat the tenacious Afonso Eulálio (Bahrain-Victorious) from the top spot on the overall classification.
The outcome of the race against the clock demonstrated that anything can happen at the Giro d'Italia as Vingegaard continues to chip away at the time gap over the second week of racing.
"Terrible. It was terrible. It was very long and not my specialty to do a flat time trial like this. I've never been super good at it, and to be honest, I came through pretty well today," Vingegaard said in a post-race interview in Massa.
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Stage 10's time trial followed a flat and fast course along the beaches of the Tuscany coast, with a loop south of Viareggio and then inland to Massa before finishing on the seafront.
Many suggested that this stage was added to the Giro route to tempt time trialists such as Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), who opted not to compete at the Giro, but that the flat profile would not be enough to counterbalance all the climbing - 49,150 metres - and seven summit finishes in this year's edition.
Vingegaard all but stated that he didn't think the route suited his capabilities in the discipline, suggesting that it was better suited to powerful specialists like Filippo Ganna (Netcompany Ineos), who won the race with the fastest time of 45:53 and at speeds reaching 55 kph.
Vingegaard has moved closer to the maglia rosa, but he also lost time to a few of his rivals in the overall classification, with Thymen Arensman (Netcompany Ineos), Derek Gee-West (Lidl-Trek) and Ben O'Connor (Jayco AlUla) also finishing with faster times than the Dane and so moving further up the standings.
"Yes, I think so. I think that a completely flat time trial like this benefits the bigger guys a bit more. The more power you have," he said of his nearest competitors' performance on the day.
The time trial kicked off the second week of racing at the Giro d'Italia, and Vingegaard pointed out that there is still plenty of racing to come, including on stage 14 atop the climb in Pila, at 1,793 metres, and the back-to-back grand finale on stage 19 at Alleghe (Piani di Pezzè) and stage 20 at Piancavallo.
"I think I'm in a good spot at the moment. Of course, I am close to the pink jersey now. It would have been nice to have the pink jersey already, but I think every day in the jersey would be a pleasure and something you have to be happy about. Of course, I'm also happy with the blue jersey; it's not a problem. In the end, I'm in a good spot," he said.
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