Jonas Vingegaard took the Giro d’Italia leader’s pink jersey for the first time after completing a hat-trick of stage wins, the race favourite soloed to the summit to take stage 14, proving too strong for his rivals in the Alps.
The Visma-Lease a Bike rider, already successful on the summit finishes on stages seven and nine and, aiming to become the eighth rider to win all three Grand Tours, attacked with less than 5km left of the gruelling 133km ride from Aosta to Pila. The Dane looks set to win the Giro at his first attempt.
Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM) was second, 49 seconds behind, with the former winner Jai Hindley taking third.
The Dane’s Visma-Lease a Bike teammates did all the work to set him up for the win on the final climb to Pila consisting of 20 hairpins, where the race leader Afonso Eulalio and many others struggled.
“Today we made a plan from the start with the team, and we wanted to control the race, and that’s what my teammates did,” Vingegaard said. “It was really impressive how they rode, and I’m so proud of my teammates, and I’m proud that I can pay them back, it’s a super nice win.”
Vingegaard, already successful on the summit finishes on stages seven and nine, attacked with less than 5km left and looks set to win the Giro at his first attempt.
Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM) was second, 49 seconds behind, with the former winner Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) taking third. Portugal’s Eulalio (Bahrain Victorious), who had hung on to the pink jersey since taking the overall lead on stage five, trailed in almost three minutes behind Vingegaard, and dropped to second place, 2min 26secoff the leader.
The riders were climbing from the off and a large breakaway group formed on the ascent of Saint-Barthelemy, while Visma controlled the peloton. Visma’s Tim Rex put in a stellar shift to drag the bunch along, grimacing in pain as they neared the top of Lin Noir, with Victor Campenaerts pouring water over his teammate’s head as the sun blazed on the mountains.
There was little respite, with the Verrogne climb beginning after a brief descent, and Rex swung off the front, his work done for the day. Vingegaard still had four Visma men to lead the way, with Eulalio tucked in behind.
Giulio Ciccone, still seeking a stage win in this year’s race, pushed the breakaway group, but a lead of just over two minutes as they began the final 16.6km climb to the finish was never going to be enough.
The vastly reduced peloton containing the overall race contenders reeled in the leaders one by one, with Eulalio trying in vain to hang on at the back, and his time in the pink jersey ended as expected on the winding road to Pila. Eulalio battled bravely to the top, and has a 24-second gap over Gall, in third place overall.
Sunday’s stage 15 takes the riders 157 km from Voghera to Milan.