Vingegaard fends off Gall in Blockhaus battle: 'He will be a big opponent'

It’s easy to gloss over because this is his first Giro d’Italia, but victory on Blockhaus marks Jonas Vingegaard’s first stage win at the Italian Grand Tour, and he becomes the 115th rider to complete the full set of Grand Tour stage wins. 

“Today is a big day for me. It’s my first Giro d’Italia stage win. It’s a nice day,’ Vingegaard said in his post-race interview. “My teammates did an amazing job working the whole day for this. I’m happy to be able to pay them back and finish it off today.”

With blustering wind on the slopes of Blockhaus, Vingegaard made his first acceleration with 5.5km remaining. Initially, Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) could follow, but the Dane eventually dispatched the Italian with 4.5km to go. 

When asked if it was his intention to make his move when he did, Vingegaard suggested that the windy conditions altered the plans slightly. 

“No, we kept it a bit more open to see when the moment was there. Yeah, there was a lot of wind and at moments a lot of headwind, so it was a very tough climb.”

It was a hard-fought victory for Vingegaard, as Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM) looked to be gaining strength and confidence as the climb grew longer. In the end, the Austrian closed Vingegaard’s advantage to 0:13 seconds at the finish line, keeping the Dane in check.

Vingegaard admitted he wasn’t surprised by the strength of Gall and acknowledged the threat that he can pose on a mountain top finish like Blockhaus. 

"I mean, I know Felix [Gall] is a very strong rider, and you know he will be up there close. He didn’t surprise me, he will be a big opponent, and he’s definitely a guy we’ll have to think about," said Vingegaard.

In taking the stage victory, Vingegaard had sliced his deficit on Afonso Eulálio (Bahrain-Victorious)  by almost half, now sitting in second, 3:17 behind the Portuguese rider. 

Vingegaard is happy to have closed a considerable amount of the gap in just one stage, but also fine to see Eulálio hold onto the jersey for a few days longer. 

“I mean I’m definitely happy I could take back some time, and that was a good day for me, good day for us, just to take back time and take some time on my opponents, that’s a good day for us,” said Vingegaard. 

Behind Vingegaard in the GC, only Gall is within a minute of the Dane, just 0:17 back in 3rd. With only seven stages down, Vingegaard knows there’s still a long time left in this Giro to make an impact.

“I think in general today was a good day, I think it was a very, very long day on the bike, almost six and a half hours in total, so maybe I can improve in this race.”