Gall can't reward Decathlon's hard work: Vingegaard wins Giro stage nine as rival falls short

Jonas Vingegaard has won stage nine of the Giro d'Italia. In an eventful stage, the final climb produced pure theatre: an attacking Giulio Ciccone went solo but was ultimately pulled back in a breathless finale. The Visma | Lease a Bike Dane was the strongest from the main bunch. Giulio Pellizzari was one of the biggest losers of the day, cracking well before the summit.

After eight stages, Vingegaard had already begun to impose himself on the Giro. The Dane won the mountain stage to Blockhaus and sat well-placed in the general classification. The pink jersey still belonged to Afonso Eulalio, who carried a 3 minutes 15 seconds lead over Vingegaard into stage nine.

Sunday's breakaway battle was a ferocious one. Davide Ballerini and Lorenzo Milesi initially brought Edward Planckaert along with them, but the Belgian was eventually brought back — just as a group of six were riding towards the leaders. Jonas Geens, Martin Marcellusi, Einer Rubio, Tim Naberman, Mattia Bais and Sakarias Koller Løland made it across, creating a leading group of eight. Chris Hamilton and Manuele Tarozzi then tried to bridge, launching an old-fashioned chasse patate, and ultimately a final group of eight was established out front.

In the peloton, Decathlon CMA CGM took on the pacemaking duties. Bahrain Victorious and Visma | Lease a Bike were also well-represented near the front — but the French team did the lion's share of the work.

What followed was a somewhat subdued and lengthy run-in to the final climb — until, at 74 kilometres from the finish, a counter-attack erupted in the peloton. On a rising section of road, Giulio Ciccone accelerated. The Italian, who had tried to get into moves all day, brought compatriot Diego Ulissi and Toon Aerts with him. The trio succeeded in bridging across, even as the peloton had also increased its tempo. With 59 kilometres to go the gap stood at just 1 minute 15 seconds — but despite some friction at the front, it grew again. By 35 kilometres out, the peloton was already more than two minutes back. Decathlon appeared to be struggling to close it alone.

With 26 kilometres remaining the road began to rise — and it would continue to do so, at varying gradients, all the way to the finish. Up front, a selection formed quickly: Ciccone, Milesi, Rubio, Ulissi and Aerts came clear as a group of five. Their advantage over the peloton remained around two minutes.

At the foot of the final climb, the lead was just under two minutes, with the peloton closing only very gradually. Ciccone didn't wait. He attacked at 12 kilometres from the line — Rubio could follow, and the small Colombian immediately took over the pacemaking. The finale was well and truly under way.

At 7.5 kilometres from the summit, Ciccone accelerated again, and this time Rubio was unable to respond. The Italian had flown clear — while the peloton still faced almost a minute of arrears. Strikingly, it was Giulio Pellizzari who was the first to crack in the chasing group, dropping off with three kilometres to go.

It had been coming all day — and sure enough, it was Gall who went at 2.4 kilometres from the line. Vingegaard could follow. The pair rapidly closed down on Ciccone. The Italian was caught and dropped. Behind them, Thymen Arensman was having an exceptional day — sitting only just behind Gall and Vingegaard.

The Austrian-Danish pair began the final kilometre together. Then Vingegaard accelerated. Gall could not match it, and the Dane struck again. Gall finished second, Davide Piganzoli took a fine third, Arensman came home fourth, and — impressively — Eulalio held on for fifth place. The Portuguese rider kept the pink jersey.