Jonas Vingegaard stormed away from Giro d’Italia rival Felix Gall to win stage nine, his second stage win in three days, and to cement his status as favourite to win the year’s first Grand Tour.
Gall’s Decathlon CMA CGM team had controlled proceedings all day on the 184km stage from Cervia and the Austrian attempted to repay them with a stage win, launching with 2.2km to go on the gruelling Corno alle Scale climb.
Vingegaard was immediately on his wheel as the pair started putting time into their main rivals, with Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe youngster Giulio Pellizzari the main casualty of their acceleration.
Lidl-Trek rider and home favourite Giulio Ciccone had looked on course for a stage win having attacked with 74km to go and bridging across to the day’s early breakaway.
Ciccone went clear with Movistar’s Einer Rubio at the bottom of the 10.8km final climb, the category one Corno alle Scale, before dropping Rubio with 7.6km to go. The Italian dropped 20 places in the general classification on Saturday’s stage eight and hoped to be let off the leash to hunt stages, but was foiled again on Sunday as Vingegaard and Gall reeled him in inside the final 2km.
Ciccone said: “Again, they don’t want me up there from the start. I spent quite a lot to try. It was annoying the tempo in the bunch and I had nothing the lose so on the small kick I tried to jump because the breakaway was close. I was feeling quite good on the last climb, but it wasn’t enough.”
Denmark’s Vingegaard followed Gall up the climb before kicking viciously with 900m to go, dropping him immediately, and ultimately finished 12 seconds clear.
Portugal’s Afonso Eulalio put in another impressive performance to remain in the race leader’s maglia rosa, finishing fifth to remain two minutes and 24 seconds ahead of second-placed Vingegaard in the overall standings.
Vingegaard’s young Visma-Lease a Bike teammate Davide Piganzoli underlined his own potential as a future stage race contender as he sprinted clear of Netcompany-Ineos’ Thymen Arensman to finish third and nab the remaining four bonus seconds, with the Italian punching the air in delight as he crossed the line.
Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe’s former Giro d’Italia winner Jai Hindley finished ninth on the day, losing a further 50 seconds to Vingegaard, while Pellizzari could only manage 22nd, 1’28” back and dropping three places to ninth overall.
Gall is Vingegaard’s closest rival going into Monday’s rest day, 35 seconds behind the three-time Grand Tour winner, who is searching for his first Giro title.
The race resumes on Tuesday with the only individual time trial on this year’s parcours, a flat 42km run from Viareggio to Massa. The time trial will be the most significant test of Gall’s challenge to date, with the Austrian expected to lose significant time to Vingegaard.
