Jonas Vingegaard, the pre-race favourite, proved his Giro d’Italia credentials by going alone to conquer the Blockhaus summit finish and win stage seven on Friday as the Dane made his first telling move of this year’s race.

The Visma-Lease a Bike rider, on his Giro debut, went for broke with just over 5km to the top, with the Austrian Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM) the only rider to get close as he came in 13 seconds behind the winner.

Jai Hindley, the Australian who triumphed at Blockhaus in 2022 before going on to win that year’s Giro, finished third. Overall leader, Portugal’s Afonso Eulalio (Bahrain Victorious), put in a brave ride, coming in less than three minutes after Vingegaard to hold on to the pink jersey.

“Today we just wanted to go for the win and I’m extremely happy that I could finish it off. My teammates they did an amazing job today and I’m happy that I can really pay it off,” Vingegaard said after what he called a “very tough climb” battling headwinds. “I’m definitely happy that I could take back some time and that was a good day for me.”

The often wet and windy stage lasted more than six hours and was the toughest test yet for the general classification contenders. The Giro’s longest stage at 245km (152 miles) took the peloton from the coastal city of Formia high into the Apennine mountains.

Eulálio took the pink jersey on Wednesday but struggled on the Blockhaus and lost contact with the leaders with just under six kilometers (four miles) to go. He finished nearly three minutes down on Vingegaard and remains in the lead but with his advantage cut to 3min 17sec. Gall is 17 seconds further back in third.