Vingegaard puts rivals to the sword on Blockhaus to take Giro win number 1

Jonas Vingegaard has won the first mountain stage of the Giro d'Italia on Blockhaus. The Visma | Lease a Bike Dane rode the final 4.5 kilometres to the summit alone, after superlative work from teammates Davide Piganzoli and Sepp Kuss. Thymen Arensman climbed at his own pace. Felix Gall was the revelation of the day.

The length of the Giro's longest stage was no deterrent for everyone. Jonathan Milan — clearly determined to ride out the frustration of Naples — broke clear from the gun. He established a lead group and was joined by two Dutch riders: Tim Naberman (Picnic-PostNL) and Jardi Christiaan van der Lee (EF Education-EasyPost). Mountains jersey holder Diego Pablo Sevilla (Polti VisitMalta) was in the move too, as was Nicholas Zukowsky (Pinarello-Q36.5).

Behind them, a controlled pace was set in the peloton. The leaders built an advantage of around six minutes within the first 30 kilometres — no more than that, as Bahrain Victorious took on the pacemaking duties in the main bunch.

After two hours of racing, Visma | Lease a Bike joined the chase as well. At this point the mountains were slowly coming into view, following a long, flat opening section. An intermediate sprint in Venafro provided Milan's reason for being in the breakaway — and he won it emphatically, securing his goal for the day alongside simply finishing.

The Italian then dropped back to the peloton, who tackled the day's first serious climb in economy mode, cresting it — with Timo Kielich of Visma | Lease a Bike on the front — five minutes behind the break, where Sevilla picked up the mountain points.

On the descent, rain began to fall — and heads started to sharpen up. Thanks to Tim Rex driving hard at the head of the peloton, the gap to the leaders came down towards three minutes by this stage. That was the head start the four remaining breakaway riders had when they hit the foot of Blockhaus.

At the base of the climb, Victor Campenaerts briefly took the front, but the Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe riders quickly moved through. The first significant casualty was Igor Arrieta of UAE, the number two in the overall standings. When Visma | Lease a Bike applied a sharp increase in pace in the exposed wind, Jan Christen was the next UAE rider to be shelled.

Pink jersey holder Eulalio followed comfortably — unlike Enric Mas (Movistar) and Egan Bernal (Netcompany INEOS), who both had to let the group go seven kilometres from the summit as Davide Piganzoli's tempo proved too much. Shortly afterwards, Piganzoli also dispatched Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto-Intermarché) and Derek Gee-West (Lidl-Trek) — and swallowed the last two breakaway riders.

With six kilometres to go, Sepp Kuss took over, effectively serving as Vingegaard's personal lead-out. Under his tempo, pink jersey holder Eulalio was dropped. Then came Vingegaard's attack — with Pellizzari and Gall the only two to initially respond. Arensman — like Hindley — chose his own rhythm rather than following the surge.

Pellizzari hung on Vingegaard's wheel for a kilometre — but then, with 4.5 kilometres still to race, Vingegaard flew. Pellizzari subsequently cracked completely and was rapidly overtaken by Gall, who at his own steady tempo was not actually that far behind Vingegaard — riding an exceptionally strong climb. In the end, Gall finished just over ten seconds back, with Hindley third at just over a minute. Arensman lost just over one and a half minutes.

Results via FirstCycling.com