Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM Team) finished second on stage 7 of the Giro d'Italia to Blockhaus, just 13 seconds behind stage winner Jonas Vingegaard (Team Visma | Lease a Bike), after riding to his own rhythm when the Dane launched the decisive attack with roughly 6km remaining. The result moved Gall into third overall, making him the nearest GC rival to Vingegaard on the race's first major mountain test.
The 244km stage from Formia finished atop Blockhaus, a 13.6km climb at 8.4%, and produced the first major GC selection of the race. Vingegaard described himself as "in super good shape" after his stage win.
The final climb began with the breakaway fracturing, leaving Jardi van der Lee (EF Education-EasyPost) and Nickolas Zukowsky (Pinarello-Q36.5) out front with KOM leader Diego Pablo Sevilla (Polti-Visit Malta) just behind. In the bunch, the pace was upped first by Visma-Lease a Bike but then overtaken by Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe with Decathlon-CMA CGM also involved. The German team seemed confident in its leaders, Giulio Pellizzari and Jai Hindley. However, with 5.5km to go, Vingegaard launched and immediately distanced everyone but Pellizzari and Gall.
Gall lost touch relatively soon after but did not chase above his limit. He settled into a sustainable tempo and began slowly catching Pellizzari, who had paid for that early effort to follow Vingegaard, and crossed the line 13 seconds down. Pellizzari eventually finished a couple of seconds behind teammate Jai Hindley and just ahead of Ben O'Connor (Jayco AlUla), over a minute behind the stage winner.
In his finish-line interview with Cycling Pro Net, the Austrian spoke about riding his own pace, staying within himself after being dropped, and trusting the effort would pay off in the final kilometres.
"At first I was a bit annoyed that I couldn't follow Pellizzari and Jonas (Vingegaard) but in the end it was the right choice and it was good that I did my own pace." He said. "He (Vingegaard) is a much better time trialist than me to start with and, I mean, he is the best Grand Tour rider we currently have next to Tadej (Pogačar) so, yeah, I'm not thinking about how to beat him for now. I'm just happy with my performance."
Gall also praised the hard work of his teammates: "It was a really hard pace from the bottom by Visma. Gregor (Mühlberger) did an amazing job keeping me out of the wind. It was quite a lot of crosswind on the climb, so it made a lot of difference. The whole team did a great job."
A pattern from Catalunya
Gall's Blockhaus performance followed a similar performance earlier in the season. At the Volta a Catalunya earlier this year, he finished second to Vingegaard on the Coll de Pal summit finish, around 50 seconds behind the Dane after a similar scenario: a long, steep finish, a Vingegaard acceleration, and Gall the first rider to limit the damage.
One key difference is the gap. Blockhaus is a harder climb but Gall finished about 40 seconds closer to Vingegaard than he did in Catalunya. Whether this is Gall simply peaking in his form or Vingegaard looking at the bigger picture, it isn't known. However, the Danish star was gritting his teeth and grimacing to take the win.
The GC looks very different after the stage. That said, it is still a pink dream for Afonso Eulálio (Bahrain-Victorious), who had taken the maglia rosa from the stage 5 breakaway and held a 6:22 lead over Vingegaard entering the stage. The Portuguese rider lost almost three minutes to Vingegaard and Gall but still holds over three minutes of an advantage to the pre-race favourites.
Vingegaard now leads the main GC contenders on corrected time, with Gall sitting second at 17 seconds. The Austrian is well placed for the mountains still to come, but the race's long time trial is a stage where Vingegaard, one of the strongest time triallists among the GC contenders, could extend his advantage. Gall climbed well on the first real test. How much he can defend in the race against the clock will determine whether his GC challenge survives the second week.
The GC has a new look to it as the first full week of the Grand Tour is coming to a close. The next two days before the second rest day may see even more major shifts in the fight for pink.
Cover image: RCS Sport
Cover image credit: Fabio Ferrari / LaPresse
