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Denmark’s two-time Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard dominated the Giro d’Italia’s mountain stage 16 to extend his overall lead in the pink jersey.
The Visma-Lease a bike rider launched a powerful attack with around 10km to get away from his competitors, achieving speeds of 23km/h at times on a 12% gradient.
Several riders lost time on a hot day in the Italian and Swiss Alps. Italy’s Giulio Ciccone, frustrated by the lack of lead he and his fellow breakaway riders had built up, brought a full drink bottle back to his team assistant through roadside spectators.
Ciccone’s Lidl-Trek team-mate Derek Gee-West and other main contenders in the general classification such as Australia’s Michael Storer all began to lose to Vinzigard’s infernal pace, showing the overwhelming favorite to win in Rome on Sunday head and shoulders above the rest of the peloton.
In Cary, Switzerland, Vingaard, after 113km of riding, finished one minute and nine seconds ahead of Austria’s Felix Gaul of the Decathlon-CMA CGM.
The 2022 Giro winner finished two seconds ahead of Australia’s Joy Hindley of Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe.
His Red Bull team-mate Giulio Pellizzi was joint contender for the pink with Hindley but the Italian fell more than 18 minutes behind on Tuesday’s climb.
The final week of the three-week Giro is notorious for changing fortunes for the riders, who took a commanding lead in the rest of the mountain stage, but no one expects Vinjegaard to suffer.
Wingard held on patiently to take control of the race, leading nine stages from Portugal’s Alfonso Eulalio of Bahrain-Victorius.
As is tradition, 29-year-old Wingard kissed a sticker of his family on his handlebars as he crossed the line and now leads the total by four minutes and three seconds, ahead of Gaul.
The Netherlands’ Thiemen Arensman of Netcompany Inos Cycling was third, 24 seconds behind.
“My teammates are very motivated for it,” Wingard said afterward. “We wanted to win in the pink jersey, but it could have gone wrong so we chose the first option to do it.
“I think it was a very difficult climb – my teammates did an amazing job. They pulled from the start and didn’t give any chance of a breakaway.”
