Vingegaard smashes Quintana’s Blockhaus record by over a minute

In 2017, Nairo Quintana set the Blockhaus benchmark at 39:54 after a ruthless series of attacks. He first went clear with 6.8 kilometres to go, taking Vincenzo Nibali and Thibaut Pinot with him, before repeatedly accelerating on the steep slopes and tearing the race apart.

While Tom Dumoulin, Bauke Mollema and Domenico Pozzovivo chased behind at their own pace, Quintana kept turning the screw, eventually distancing Pinot and opening up a 25 second gap with just over two kilometres remaining. He crossed the line 24 seconds ahead of Dumoulin and Pinot, with Mollema at 40 seconds, Nibali nearly a minute down and huge gaps across the GC group, underlining just how devastating his climb had been.

In 2022, it was Jai Hindley who won on Blockhaus, but he and several of his rivals came nowhere near Quintana’s time.

Today, Vingegaard did. With Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe setting a hard tempo from the base of the climb and Visma | Lease a Bike taking over soon after, the group of contenders was quickly reduced. Davide Piganzoli’s work was particularly impressive, before Sepp Kuss took over.

With 5.5 kilometres to go, Vingegaard lit the fuse. Giulio Pellizzari and Felix Gall briefly tried to resist, but they were soon forced to accept the Dane’s superiority. Pellizzari lasted the longest, although it was Gall who impressed most in the finale, limiting his losses to Vingegaard.

In the end, Vingegaard climbed Blockhaus in 38:26, while Gall, Hindley, Pellizzari and Ben O’Connor also went faster than Quintana’s previous record.