'It's something I'm extremely happy about' - Vingegaard takes milestone career win on Giro stage 9

Visma had been content to sit in for most of the 184km stage from Cervia, with Decathlon CMA CGM doing the bulk of the chasing work in defence of Gall's GC ambitions. Vingegaard confirmed afterwards that the stage win had not been the original plan.

"We didn't want to pull for the stage today, and we realised quite quickly that the Austrian wanted to go for the stage," Vingegaard said in his flash interview. "It's always nice with a win, something I'm super happy with. Even my teammates did a super good job. Once the win was within reach, we decided on the last climb to maybe try to go for it."

The Dane attacked with 900 metres to go, coming over the top of Gall to take a clear advantage in the final stretch on the steepest part of the climb, where gradients touched 10%.

"I think so. Felix did a very strong attack when he attacked, and luckily I was able to follow. In the end, I tried myself and was able to take the win, so it's something I'm extremely happy about."

Behind, Visma teammate Davide Piganzoli took third place, the 23-year-old Italian coming past Thymen Arensman in the final kilometres to give the team two on the podium. The result also moves Piganzoli up on GC in his first Giro for Visma after signing a three-year deal from Polti VisitMalta over the winter.

"Of course I am. He's a super good guy. He's really, really strong. I'm super, super happy for Davide. He's a special guy as well."

For Vingegaard, the win is his 50th career professional victory and his second of the race. The Dane sits in second on GC ahead of the rest day, 2:53 behind Afonso Eulálio, who still holds the maglia rosa after limiting his losses to 40 seconds on the day. The 42km flat time trial on stage 10 on Tuesday is widely expected to settle the GC order entirely.

"We are where we wanted to be, obviously. I'm in a good situation at the moment for GC. So far, everything is looking good for us. We're happy where we are."

The rest day on Monday gives the GC contenders time to digest a brutal opening week before the time trial that is likely to deliver the maglia rosa to Vingegaard. Gall lost 12 seconds on the stage but his TT history sits well below the Dane's, and the gaps after Tuesday's race against the clock are likely to be substantial.