Jonas Vingegaard won the Giro d'Italia's second mountain top finish on Sunday, attacking Felix Gall one kilometre from the line to take his second stage win of this year's Giro d'Italia.
Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM) attacked what remained of the GC favourite's group just over 2km from the line, taking Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) with him, but the Austrian was unable to resist the Dane's move under the flamme rouge.
Vingegaard's team mate, Davide Piganzoli put in a remarkable ride to finish third, while the maglia rosa Afonso Eulálio (Bahrain Victorious) was fifth and retains the overall lead, though with a reduced advantage of 2.24.
Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) had seemed set to take the stage win after bridging to the day's breakaway and leading into the final 2.5km, but when his compatriot, Giulio Pelizzari, one of Red Bull-Bora hansgrohe's GC hopefuls, was dropped, both Visma-Lease a Bike and Decathlon CMA CGM reacted.
Ciccone was quickly brought back and it seemed Gall and Vingegaard would sprint for the win, but the Dane showed his superiority, attacking and instantly dropping the Austrian, to take his second mountain top victory of the race's opening week.
"We didn't want to pull for the stage win today," Vingegaard said. "We realised quite quickly that Decathlon wanted to go for the stage, and it's always nice with a win, something I'm super happy with. My team mates did a super good job and once the win was within victory [sic] 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."
How it happened
After Saturday's punchy stage did little for the GC battle, Sunday's ninth day brought the potential of more changes in the fight for the overall victory.
The peloton headed north, up the Adriatic coast, to Cervia for a 184km stage west, into the Apennine mountains and the race's second mountain top finish at Corno alle Scala. The final 31km were split into two climbs, one an 11km long third category ascent, the other the first category ascent to the line, though up until those mountains the route was less challenging, the opening 156km largely flat.
Whether the final, first category climb would be tough enough to create any sort of GC selection had been a point of debate, the 10.8km ascent averaging 5.9% gradient, though, with the steepest, double digit slopes close to the top there were some opportunities for the bold.
Attacks came from the flag, and once again many teams were keen to place a rider up the road. Despite this eagerness, three riders were soon away, gaining half a minute before the counter attacks started again.
As they did on Saturday's stage, these moves included Jonathan Milan, the Lidl-Trek rider keen to score points at the intermediate sprint, but once again, wherever he went so did Paul Magnier, the Soudal Quick-Step rider wearing the maglia ciclmino.
Only with 40km done, did a real advantage grow, Jonas Geens (Alpecin-Premier Tech), Martin Marcelusi (Bardiani-CSF 7 Saber), Tim Naberman (Picnic PostNL Raisin) Mattia Bais (Polti-VisitMalta) Sakarias Koller Løland (Uno-X Mobility), Davide Ballerini (XDS Astana) and the Movistar pair of Lorenzo Milesi and Einer Rubio coming together to grind out a 50 second lead.
Another group briefly tried their luck, but, with their deficit more than one minute and growing fast, they sat up and drifted back to the peloton. For their part, the bunch allowed the breakaway's advantage out to around 2.40 where it settled, the Decathlon CMA CGM squad of Felix Gall, who started the day third overall, setting the pace.
Decathlon clearly had a plan for the stage, never allowing the breakaway to increase their lead, stringing the peloton out into one long line.
With the peloton's deficit at 2.13 with 74 km from the line, Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) tried his luck with an attack on a small climb. Taking Diego Ulissi (XDS Astana) and Toon Aerts (Lotto-Intermarché) with him, Ciccone took 40 seconds out of the peloton almost instantly, and just 15km later they'd reached the front of the race. Meanwhile, leading the peloton, Decathlon seemed to panic, bringing the breakaway to within 1.15, before letting go once more.
By the time the breakaway began arguing among themselves about who was shirking the work, the lead was 2.04. Then, as tempers settled so did the leaders' advantage, Decathlon CMA CGM continuing to lead, some 2.23 behind as the third category climb to Querciola began.
As the climb went on the breakaway began to fall apart, and by the time the leaders reached the top, 16.5km from the finish, only Ulissi, Ciccone, Aerts, Rubio and Milesi remained, though their lead was still relatively intact at 2.07. Jonas Vingegaard's Visma-Lease a Bike squad led on the descent, taking 30 seconds out of the breakaway by the time Ciccone attacked, taking Rubio with him at the bottom of the final climb, 11.3km from the finish.
With Decathlon back on the front of the GC group, Ciccone and Rubio set about trying to win the stage, each dutifully taking their turns as the climb wore on. However, with 7.5km remaining Ciccone made a move, attacking and instantly dropping his rival. It seemed to be working and the stage win seemed within the Italian's grasp, even with the Visma-Lease a bike led bunch at 45 seconds.
But when Pelizzari began struggling the dynamic in the favourites' group changed, first Visma-Lease a Bike upping the pace then Gall making his attack.
While Monday is a rest day, the Giro returns on Tuesday for a 42km individual time trial, where Vingegaard will surely be hoping to close some of his 2.24 deficit to race leader Eulálio. "We are where we wanted to be obviously, I'm in a good situation at the moment for GC and so far everything is looking good," Vingegaard said.
RESULTS
GIRO D'ITALIA, STAGE 9, CERVIO > CORNO ALLE SCALE (184KM)
1. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike, in 4:20:21
2. Felix Gall (Aut) Decathlon CMA CGM, +12s
3. Davide Piganzoli (Ita) Visma-Lease a Bike, +34s
4. Thymen Arensman (Ned) Netcompany-Ineos, s.t.
5. Afonso Eulálio (Por) Bahrain Victorious, +41s
6. Derek Gee-West (Can) Lidl-Trek, +46s
7. Mathys Rondel (Fra) Tudor Pro Cycling, s.t.
8. Sepp Kuss (USA) Visma-Lease a Bike, s.t.
9. Jai Hindley (Aus) Red Bull-Bora hansgrohe, +50s
10. Michael Storer (Aus) Tudor Pro Cycling, s.t.
GENERAL CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE 9
1. Afonso Eulálio (Por) Bahrain Victorious, in 38:49:44
2. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike, +2:24
3. Felix Gall (Aut) Decathlon CMA CGM, +2:59
4. Jai Hindley (Aus) Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, +4:32
5. Christian Scaroni (Ita) XDS Astana, +4:43
6. Thymen Arensman (Ned) Netcompany-Ineos, +5:00
7. Mathys Rondel (Fra) Tudor Pro Cycling, +5:01
8. Ben O'Connor (Aus) Jayco AlUla, +5:03
9. Giulio Pelizzari (Ita) Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, +5:15
10. Michael Storer (Aus) Tudor Pro Cycling, +5:20
