Main GC contender Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) soloed to a second stage win at the Giro d'Italia on stage 9, attacking in the final kilometre of the steep Corno alle Scale climb to drop Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM) and gain time on all his rivals.
On a day where the breakaway were kept on a tight leash all day by Decathlon CMA CGM, Gall was the first from the GC group to attack in the final 3km of the climb, but Vingegaard was glued to his wheel, and then struck the killer blow under the flamme rouge to seal the stage win.
Gall held on for second, ceding 11 seconds plus bonuses to Vingegaard, whilst the Dane's teammate Davide Piganzoli beat Thymen Arensman (Netcompany Ineos) in the sprint for third, another 20 seconds back.
"We didn't want to pull for the stage today, but we realise quite soon that Decathlon wanted to go for the stage, and it's always nice to win," Vingegaard explained at the finish, saying the win wasn't something he was seeking this morning.
"It's something I'm super happy with, and my teammates did a super good job, so once the win was within [view], we decided on the last climb to maybe try to go for it. Felix did a very strong attack when he attacked, and luckily I was able to follow, and then in the end I tried myself and was able to take the win."
Despite making gains, Vingegaard still won't take the pink jersey, with Afonso Eulálio (Bahrain Victorious) again valiantly fighting to finish fifth and take the race lead into the rest day.
As for not yet being in the lead, Vingegaard wasn't concerned about his deficit to pink ahead of the second week.
"We are where we wanted to be, I'm in a good situation at the moment for GC, and so far everything is looking good for us, we're happy where we are."
Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) was the final survivor of the breakaway on the climb, having bridged to the original break halfway through the stage to try and chase a victory. He came agonisingly close, but was caught by the GC riders with 1.7km to go and quickly dropped.
Instead of a home win for Ciccone, it was a milestone 50th win for Vingegaard, who remains second on GC, 2:24 down on Eulálio, though that will surely change again soon with a 42km time trial coming straight after Monday's rest day.
How it unfolded
Stage 9 rolled out of Cervia for a day that started off flat and then went dramatically uphill in the final 20km. With a possible breakaway victory on the cards, it was another competitive fight to be in the day's break, with several moves going and coming back in the first hour, though mercifully, it didn't take quite as long to form as the 60km it took on stage 8.
Instead, a group got away definitively after around 35km, made up of stage winner Davide Ballerini (XDS Astana), Lorenzo Milesi, Einer Rubio (both Movistar), Sakarias Løland (Uno-X Mobility), Jonas Geens (Alpecin-Premier Tech), Tim Naberman (Picnic PostNL Raisin), Mattia Bais (Polti VisitMalta) and Martin Marcellusi (Bardiani CSF Saber 7).
After 60km, the eight leaders had a three-minute gap on the peloton, which the bunch seemed keen to limit to two and a half or three minutes, suggesting it might not be a day for a breakaway win.
It was Decathlon CMA CGM he seemed keen to keep the gap small and the pace high, helping Bahrain Victorious on the front of the bunch and keeping the break within three minutes, even with more than 100km still to go. Indeed, they kept on working and with 80km the gap had come down to 1:45 – close enough to tempt riders into a bridging attempt.
Over the top of the one uncategorised rise of the first part of the stage, stage hopeful Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) launched a punchy attack, taking with him Toon Aerts (Lotto Intermarche) and Diego Ulissi (XDS Astana).
At first, it wasn't quite clear if this move was going to go anywhere, riding into no man's land between the bunch and the break, but the strong trio managed to bridge the gap impressively quickly, joining the leaders with 61km to go.
Despite the added firepower, the bunch were still keeping the now 11 leaders on a tight leash, around two minutes for the next 20km in the run-in to the finale and the climbs. Ciccone was the most active in the break, clearly hoping to go for a stage win after purposefully losing time on GC on stage 8.
At the start of the Querciola climb, the pace in the break – and the peloton – ramped up pretty quickly, with 11 soon becoming only five as the weaker climbers were rapidly dropped. Ciccone, Aerts, Milesi, Rubio and Ulissi were the five holding on halfway up the climb.
Decathlon were still working on the climb, but near the top, Visma-Lease a Bike took over the job of pacing the peloton, with the gap still holding at two minutes with 20km to go. Visma led onto the short descent before the final climb, but didn't necessarily look like they were trying to chase the break, more just take control.
Ciccone attacked with 11.7km to go, with Rubio able to follow, and the two hit the Corno alle Scale together, starting 10.8km of climbing at a 5.9% average gradient. Behind, Decathlon took over again in the chase, with the gap sitting at only 1:20 with 9km to go and falling under Decathlon's pace-setting.
Sensing the urgency and pressure from behind, Ciccone accelerated to get rid of Rubio with 7.5km to go, which seemed the right thing to do, as he added a few seconds back to his advantage when he went on his own, though it was still looking hard to hold the GC group off.
With 4km to go, Ciccone's gap dipped under a minute as he approached the steepest, hardest part of the climb. Visma were now in control behind, with Jai Hindley on their wheel, but Giulio Pellizzari looked to be struggling at the back of the reduced peloton.
With 3km to go, Enric Mas (Movistar) lost contact with the favourites group, soon followed by Pellizzari, and then it wasn't long until the serious GC action kicked off. Felix Gall was the first to launch an acceleration with 2.5km to go, quickly distancing everyone but Vingegaard, and closing the gap to Ciccone. It wasn't to be his day after a big effort, and he was caught and passed with 1.7km to go.
Thymen Arensman was the third rider in the road, and pink jersey Eulalio was bravely holding on in a group just behind, with riders like Derek Gee-West (Lidl-Trek) and Michael Storer (Tudor).
In front, Vingegaard was forcing Gall to do all the work, as they looked set to make gains on all their rivals, and battle for the stage win. As they went under the flamme rouge, Vingegaard came round to launch an attack, fairly quickly distancing Gall and speeding away to the stage victory.
In the end, Vingegaard finished 12 seconds ahead of Gall, plus 10 bonus seconds to the Austrian's six, to make a small but meaningful gain on GC against the rider who is emerging as his main challenger.
Most of the rest of the GC favourites came in in the top 10, all within a minute of Vingegaard. The main loser was Pellizzari, crossing the 1:28 down on the winner and sliding down from sixth to ninth overall.
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