Jonas Vingegaard on Tuesday underlined that his form is gradually improving when he established his dominance in the Giro d'Italia with the most convincing victory of his campaign at the Giro yet, when he cemented his hold on the pink jersey with a triumphant climb to Carì in the Swiss Alps.
The seemingly invincible Dane now leads second-placed Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM) by just over four minutes, who finished second, ahead of Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe).
Vingegaard made his decisive move with over 6 kilometers to go. Gall dug deep in his attempt to follow the attack, but simply couldn't follow the back wheel of the superior Danes and was forced back into a chasing group led by Egan Bernal and Thymen Arensman.
It was the fourth stage victory for the Visma | Lease a Bike leader, his first while wearing the Maglia Rosa, and Vingegaard looks unstoppable with only five stages between him and an inaugural Giro victory in Rome. The big losers of the day were Egan Bernal, finishing 2:04 down, Michael Storer (Tudor) at 2:18, Eulalio at 3:04, and Ben O'Connor finishing 3:48 down on the winner.
"My teammates and I were very motivated for it, we wanted to try to win in the pink jersey, but obviously it can also go wrong, so we just chose the first option to try it, because if we failed, then we would have another chance to win in pink as well," Vingegaard said at the finish.
"I think it was a very nice, very hard climb. It's a long climb; it took around half an hour, and again, my teammates today did an amazing job. They pulled from the start, they didn't give the breakaway any chances, and on the last climb, they reduced the bunch. Then I had to do the rest, and I'm happy once again that I can pay back my teammates."
Vingegaard now leads the Giro overall, 4,03 min ahead of Gall and 4,27 min ahead of Arensman.