Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) made a statement on Friday's stage 7 of the Giro d'Italia, leaving his GC rivals behind on the steep – and windswept – slopes of the Blockhaus climb and taking his first ever Giro stage win solo.
Felix Gall (Decathlon-CMA CGM) delivered a strong ride to finish 13 seconds behind Vingegaard as the only rider within a minute of the stage winner, as Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) took third 1:02 down just ahead of his teammate Giulio Pellizzari and Jayco-AlUla's Ben O'Connor.
Overnight leader Afonso Eulálio (Bahrain Victorious) limited his losses enough on the final climb to maintain his race lead by a little over three minutes, with Vingegaard now sitting second overall ahead of Gall in third. Beyond that, the gaps to the rest of the pink jersey hopefuls grew considerably on what marked the first major mountain test of the race.
[race_result id=13 stage_id=89970 count=5 gc=0 year=2026]
[race_result id=13 stage_id=89970 count=5 gc=5 year=2026]
How it happened
- A five-rider move went up the road quickly after the start of the stage, with Lidl-Trek's Jonathan Milan – hoping to pick up intermediate sprint points in his bid for a third Giro points title – as the biggest name in the group. With no major threats to the pink jersey in the move, the peloton was content to let the escapees establish themselves as the breakaway of the day.
- The gap between bunch and break stabilized at around five minutes, with Bahrain Victorious taking control at the front of the peloton. There was little change in the race situation until the intermediate sprint near the midway point of the day. As expected, Milan powered over the line first to mop up maximum points.
- As rain began to fall on the race, the road kicked upward on an uncategorized stretch before the Cat. 2 Roccaraso climb. On the lower slopes of the latter ascent, Milan lost touch with the break and drifted back to the bunch.
- On rolling roads inside the last 50 km, the gap began to shrink. Fortunately for the rain-dampened Giro field, the precipitation slackened, although there was plenty of wind to buffet the riders.
- The gap was well under three minutes when the road kicked up for the final, brutal time, the gradients made more challenging by intense winds blowing across the road out of the southwest.
- Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe began to apply pressure in the peloton, while out front, Nickolas Zukowsky (Pinarello-Q36.5) surged from the break to take the maximum bonus seconds at the Red Bull KM. Jardi van der Lee (EF Education-EasyPost) then bridged up to him, leaving the other two breakaway riders behind – but it was clear that the two leaders would be caught sooner or later.
- Visma-Lease a Bike came to the front in force on the lower slopes of the climb, upping the pace and stringing things out as the wind continued to blow. Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) and Enric Mas (Movistar) were among the early casualties with almost 8 km still to climb as Davide Piganzoli hammered at the front for Visma, with Sepp Kuss and Vingegaard behind him.
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