'I'm not expecting any miracles' - Gall faces Vingegaard test in Giro time trial

Felix Gall kept looking back over his shoulder after he attacked on the upper reaches of the climb to Corno alle Scale on Sunday, but he confessed that he couldn’t detect the faintest hint of weakness in the face of Jonas Vingegaard.

In a microcosm of the entire Giro, Gall acknowledged that Vingegaard wasn’t the sole focus of those backwards glances in the first place. The Austrian was at least as concerned about surveying the damage further behind, where the rest of his podium rivals were battling to limit their losses.

“I mean, I was looking at him, but I also looking to see if there was someone coming back to us, because it seemed for a bit like Thymen [Arensman] might catch up,” Gall told reporters including Domestique in a video call on Monday’s rest day.

“I wanted to know about the gap behind us, and then also of course it would have been nice to have Jonas working a little bit with me. And maybe it was also to see if he was suffering, but he looked very relaxed. It would have been nice maybe to see a little bit of pain in his face, but that was not the case.”

Gall has cut a relaxed figure himself on this Giro, chatting amiably with reporters at starts and finishes, but always courteously shrugging off the suggestion that he is becoming a bona fide contender to deny Vingegaard the Trofeo Senza Fine in Rome.

Since the Giro left Bulgaria last week, Gall has insisted that his objective is a podium finish, and that remains the official line despite his impressive showings on the Blockhaus and Corno alle Scale, where he restricted himself to losing a handful of seconds to Vingegaard on each occasion.

“I mean, he has shown and proven over and over again in the last years that he is the best Grand Tour rider next to Tadej [Pogacar],” Gall said here. “I mean, he’s super. I wouldn’t say he has any weaknesses. He has a really strong team, and he also punchy compared to other GC guys. I would say he’s just a really, really complete rider.”

Vingegaard’s punch was on display at Corno alle Scale, where he sat like a deadweight on Gall’s wheel for a mile or so before accelerating viciously 900 metres or so from the line to win the stage by 12 seconds.

Although Gall’s Decathlon CMA CGM team had controlled the peloton for much of the day with the aim of teeing him up for stage victory, he batted away the idea that Vingegaard had broken any kind of unwritten code by sitting on and then attacking.

“I mean, it’s a race,” Gall said. “If I had been in his position, I also wouldn’t have taken a turn. And on this kind of gradient, it’s also didn’t really make a difference. I understood that he was waiting to attack me, and I was more focused on putting time into the guys behind me.

“It’s super nice to see I have good shape, and we can be proud that we showed what a strong team we are. But just because you work as a team all day long doesn’t mean you are guaranteed the stage win.”

Gall lies third overall at the Giro after nine stages, 2:59 off pink jersey Afonso Eulálio (Bahrain Victorious) and just 35 seconds behind Vingegaard. Perhaps more pertinently, Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Hansgrohe) is the only other podium contender still within two minutes of Gall, whose resumé includes fifth overall at last year’s Tour de France.

The race resumes on hostile terrain for Gall on Tuesday, however, with a flat and fast 42km time trial from Viareggio to Massa. The discipline has always been a weakness for the 28-year-old, and he revealed that he has tweaked his position since his last outing at the UAE Tour in February.

“We went a bit steeper with the angle of the cockpit. It feels more natural and it should be easier to keep the position,” said Gall, who has tried to bank extra miles on his time trial bike where he can.

“At altitude camps and at home, I take it out on the rest day for a spin to just accumulate a little bit of time and to have the body get a little bit used to the position and the different muscles – but in the end it’s still a pretty uncomfortable position.”

It remains to be seen how comfortable Gall will be sitting in the general classification after the Massa time trial, with Vingegaard widely expected to lay down a hefty marker in the battle for final overall victory.

Gall, however, has left nothing to chance. Although the course is an uncomplicated one, he performed a recon on Monday’s rest day, and he will sample it again on Tuesday morning. 

“I’m pretty curious myself about how it’s going to go tomorrow,” he smiled. “I’m not expecting any miracles tomorrow, but I hope it’s going to go well.”