Jonas Vingegaard, the pre-race favourite, proved his Giro d’Italia credentials by going alone to conquer the Blockhaus summit finish and win stage seven on Friday. The Visma-Lease a Bike rider made his first telling move of this year’s race on his Giro debut, attacking with just over 5km to the top.
The Austrian Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM) was the only rider to get close, finishing 13 seconds behind the winner. Jai Hindley, the Australian who triumphed at Blockhaus in 2022 before going on to win that year’s Giro, finished third.
The overall leader, Portugal’s Afonso Eulálio (Bahrain Victorious), put in a brave ride to hold on to the pink jersey, coming in less than three minutes after Vingegaard. However, his advantage was cut to 3 minutes 17 seconds.
“Today we just wanted to go for the win and I’m extremely happy that I could finish it off,” Vingegaard said after what he called a “very tough climb” battling headwinds. The often wet and windy stage lasted more than six hours and was the longest of the Giro at 245km (152 miles), taking the peloton from the coastal city of Formia high into the Apennine mountains.
Eulálio took the pink jersey on Wednesday but lost contact with the leaders with just under 6km to go on the Blockhaus. He finished nearly three minutes down on Vingegaard but remains in the overall lead, with Gall 17 seconds further back in third.
