Vingegaard Wins Giro d'Italia Stage Seven as Three Australians Sit in Top 10

Jonas Vingegaard won stage seven of the Giro d'Italia, powering away from rivals on the Blockhaus climb at the end of a 244-kilometre stage that featured significant elevation gain. He finished 13 seconds ahead of the second-place rider, with two Australian riders finishing third and fifth on the day, more than a minute behind.

The stage, the longest with this amount of climbing in a grand tour since 2000, tested all contenders as it stretched into its seventh hour. Vingegaard became the 115th rider to record stage wins at all three grand tours. He credited his teammates for their work in setting up the move.

"Today we wanted to go for the victory, and I'm extremely happy that I managed to achieve it," Vingegaard said at the finish. A third Australian rider is 10th overall, 5:11 behind the leader. The current race leader retained the pink jersey after finishing 15th on the stage, maintaining a lead of 3:17 over Vingegaard.

Vingegaard said he was satisfied to gain time on the race leader and other contenders. "I'm definitely satisfied to have gained time on the maglia rosa and on my rivals," Vingegaard added. Team Visma set the pace onto the climb, after which Vingegaard attacked with 5.5 kilometres remaining to the summit.

The only rider able to stay close to Vingegaard was an Austrian climber who finished 13 seconds back after riding at a measured tempo. That rider later said the pace set by Visma from the bottom of the climb was very high. He added that he lacked the time-trialling strength to challenge Vingegaard for overall victory ahead of stage 10's 42-kilometre test.

The eighth stage will cover 156 kilometres from Chieti to Fermo. The route begins flat along the Adriatic coast before turning hilly with several steep climbs that are expected to test the overall contenders again.