May 15 (Reuters) - Pre-race favourite Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) proved his Giro d'Italia credentials by going alone to conquer the Blockhaus summit finish and win stage seven on Friday in his first telling move of the race to move second overall.
Dane Vingegaard, making his Giro debut, went for broke with just over 5 km to the top, with Austrian Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM) looking impressive as the only rider to get close, coming in 13 seconds behind the winner and now third in the GC.
"Today is a big day for me, it's my first Giro stage win, so it's a nice day," Vingegaard said. "Felix is a very strong rider, so we knew he'd be up there close. He's a big rival and so he is a guy we have to worry about."
Australian Jai Hindley, who triumphed at Blockhaus in 2022 before going on to win that year's Giro, finished third on the longest stage of this year's race, 244 km from Formia ending with the 13.6 km steep climb to the line.
Overall leader, Portugal's Afonso Eulalio (Bahrain Victorious), put in a brave ride, coming home less than three minutes after Vingegaard to hold onto the pink jersey, with the Dane three minutes and 17 seconds behind.
Vingegaard, aiming to become the eighth rider to win all three Grand Tours, began the day 15th in the general classification, over six minutes down on Eulalio, and the first summit finish was always going to be a target for the Dane.
An early five-man breakaway, including sprint specialist Jonathan Milan, was allowed to build a significant gap over the peloton, and the Italian was caught with 80 km left, his job done having taken maximum points at the intermediate sprint.
With 60 km to go, the gap to the front was six minutes but the reduced bunch upped the pace and were less than three minutes behind when the leaders hit the start of the final climb.
Two riders, Nickolas Zukowsky and Jardi Christiaan van der Lee, tried to stay away but resistance was futile as Visma-Lease a Bike pushed their way up in support of Vingegaard.
Giulio Pellizzari was the only one to keep pace when Vingegaard went in front but the Italian was soon dropped and it was Gall who powered to the finish.
Gall is 17 seconds behind Vingegaard overall and could prove to be the Dane's biggest danger.
Saturday's stage eight is a 156-km ride from Chieti to Fermo.
(Reporting by Trevor Stynes; Editing by Toby Davis and Ken Ferris)
