BLOCKHAUS, Italy (AP) 鈥� Jonas Vingegaard surged away from the peloton to win on the Blockhaus peak in the seventh stage of the Giro d’Italia on Friday and cut into Afonso Eul谩lio’s overall lead.
Vingegaard pushed on alone on the final stretch of the mountain to claim his first career Giro stage win by 13 seconds from Felix Gall. No other rider finished within a minute. The 2022 Giro winner Jai Hindley was third fastest, 1 minute, 2 seconds off Vingegaard.
鈥淭oday we just wanted to go for the win and I鈥檓 extremely happy that I could finish it off. My teammates they did an amazing job today and I鈥檓 happy that I can really pay it off,” Vingegaard said after what he called a 鈥渧ery tough climb鈥� battling headwinds.
鈥淚鈥檓 definitely happy that I could take back some time and that was a good day for me.鈥�
The at times wet and windy stage lasted over six hours and was the toughest test yet for the general classification contenders.
The Giro’s longest stage at 245 kilometers (152 miles) took the peloton from the coastal city of Formia high into the Apennine mountains.
Eul谩lio took the on Wednesday but struggled on the Blockhaus and lost contact with the leaders with just under six kilometers (four miles) to go.
He finished nearly three minutes down on Vingegaard and remains in the lead but with his advantage cut to 3 minutes, 17 seconds. Gall is 17 seconds further back in third.
The 109th men鈥檚 Giro ends on May 31 in Rome.
The women鈥檚 Giro runs from May 30-June 7 with Italian rider Elisa Longo Borghini as the defending champion.
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