Giro d'Italia: Jonas Vingegaard takes control on Blockhaus, is Felix Gall now his main challenger?

Jonas Vingegaard celebrates as he crosses the finish line to win stage seven of the 2026 Giro LUCA BETTINI/Getty Images Share articleJonas Vingegaard took control of the Giro d’Italia on Friday by winning stage seven to Blockhaus, the first major summit finish of this year’s race. However, he was impressively chased by Austrian climber Felix Gall, who now appears to be the Dane’s biggest challenger as the former Tour winner looks to complete his Grand Tour set. Italian hope Giulio Pellizzari lost just over a minute on the day. Friday’s 244km day was the longest Grand Tour stage in five years, featuring 4467m of climbing — no Grand Tour stage over 240km since 2000 had featured more ascent. It was a prestigious day for Vingegaard to become the 115th man to win stages in all three Grand Tours — as he took another step towards his ultimate goal, becoming just the eighth man to take overall victory in all three races. Portuguese climber Afonso Eulálio remains in the maglia rosa, having taken a lead of over six minutes into stage seven after a breakaway two days before. Jacob Whitehead breaks down the key moments from Friday’s stage. Broadly, a stalemate between the favourites — or at least those few remaining. This has been an attritional Giro, with fifteen riders abandoning by the end of stage six. The most high-profile of these was Adam Yates, who left the race after suffering concussion symptoms following a horror crash on stage two. Vingegaard and Pellizzari, however, had navigated the race’s opening week perfectly, remaining out of trouble and avoiding any unnecessary time losses. Both riders briefly looked as if they might take time on stage two themselves after Vingegaard’s opportunistic attack on the closing climb, before the peloton recaptured the escapees in the final kilometres. They were 11th and 15th respectively entering stage seven. Other general classification (GC) contenders to have avoided losing time so far were Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek), Egan Bernal, Thymen Arensman (both Netcompany INEOS), Ben O’Connor (Jayco AlUla), Michael Storer (Tudor Pro Cycling) Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM) and Jai Hindley (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe). However, it was a surprise man who wore pink on stage seven. Bahrain-Victorious’ young Portuguese climber Afonso Eulálio won the jersey on stage five after finishing second in that day’s breakaway — he entered the day holding an advantage of six minutes and 18 seconds over the favourites. Eulálio is unlikely to challenge for the win, but as a talented rider who finished in the top 10 in last year’s climbing heavy world championships, achieving just minimal losses on the Blockhaus could signal that a podium place may be in the offing, especially against what appears to be a lightweight GC field outside the two favorites. Unlike the Tour de France, which typically tries to shake up the GC standings in the opening three days of the race, the first week of this Giro has been a slow burn — the significance of the Blockhaus climb is that it was the first opportunity to see riders’ true condition. The Blockhaus is known as the mountain where Eddy Merckx was ‘discovered’ by the Giro d’Italia — winning his first Grand Tour stage here in 1967. Vingegaard is here, however, to complete his palmares. Should he win this year’s Giro, he will become just the eighth rider to have won all three Grand Tours — the Giro, the Tour de France, and the Vuelta a Espana. His Visma-Lease a Bike team have been quiet so far this race, deliberately staying near the back of the peloton during sprint stages in order to minimise the risk of crashing. However, their yellow jersey surged to the front at the bottom of the 13km final climb, with 23-year-old Davide Piganzoli impressively pushing the pace at the bottom. American former Vuelta winner Sepp Kuss was Vingegaard’s final domestique, before the Dane attacked with 5.5km of the Blockhaus remaining, with only Pellizzari able to stay with him. 💥 One attack is all it takes, getting dropped by Vingegaard! Jonas is flying towards the top of the Blockhaus! 📺 Follow the #Giroditalia on TV, and on socials, wherever you are 🌐 pic.twitter.com/7hXNccTkYb — Giro d'Italia (@giroditalia) May 15, 2026 However, the young Italian appeared to go over his limit by attempting to match Vingegaard, quickly becoming gapped after just a kilometre of climbing together. He was quickly caught by Decathlon CMA CGM’s Austrian climber Felix Gall, who rode away from Pellizzari himself with 3.9km left. Red Bull then hinted that they are pursuing a co-leadership strategy when Jai Hindley, a winner on the Blockhaus himself four years ago, outsprinted Pellizzari in the final metres of the stage to finish third. Jayco AlUla’s Ben O’Connor completed the top five. Up front, Vingegaard quickly established a 30 second lead, but Gall then impressively brought back the gap, eventually finishing just 13 seconds behind the stage winner. With Eulálio losing just under three minutes on the stage, he now holds pink by three minutes and 17 seconds over Vingegaard. Vingegaard was always the favourite on Friday’s stage — but the surprise package was Decathlon CMA CGM’s leader, with Gall finishing far closer to the Dane than expected. The 28-year-old has been overshadowed within his own team in recent months, with the French squad increasingly building around 19-year-old hypertalent Paul Seixas, but Gall has pedigree himself, having finished fifth at last year’s Tour de France, and winning the Queen Stage at the same race in 2023. Though Pellizzari had been expected to be Vingegaard’s main challenger — something which appeared to be transpiring when he matched the Dane’s initial acceleration — Gall demonstrated his superior experience by riding his own pace on the climb. Pellizzari, in contrast, appeared to go over his limit by following Vingegaard, slowing massively in the final kilometres — while Gall, in contrast, only sped up. Had the stage been a kilometre longer, Gall may have even caught Vingegaard for the win. 🇦🇹 Felix Gall absolutely smokes 🇮🇹 Giulio Pellizzari, as the young Italian is struggling on the slopes of Blockhaus. 📺 Follow the #Giroditalia on TV, and on socials, wherever you are 🌐 pic.twitter.com/0b4FBAmR9J — Giro d'Italia (@giroditalia) May 15, 2026 “It was a really hard pace from the bottom,” Gall said post-race. “There were quite some crosswinds on the climb but the team did a great job the whole day. At first I was a bit annoyed that I couldn’t follow Pellizzari and Jonas, but in the end it was the right choice and it was good that I did my own pace.” On Friday’s basis, Gall is comfortably the second-stronger climber in the race — catapulting himself from a podium outsider to the favourite for second-place, or perhaps even more in the case of a Vingegaard implosion. The only thing against him is his poor time trialling ability — though the likes of Hindley and Pellizzari are not exactly specialists in the discipline either. The first major climb of any Grand Tour is usually a cruel dose of reality — where teams, having built around a rider over the previous week, suddenly realise those sacrifices might have been in vain. Count Netcompany INEOS as one of those squads — having thrown away Ben Turner’s chance of a win on stage four in favour of supporting former Tour winner Egan Bernal, the Colombian blew up on the lower slopes of the Blockhaus, eventually finishing almost three minutes down on Vingegaard, in a group mostly containing domestiques. Netcompany INEOS’ GC challenge now appears to be built around Thymen Arensman, who finished in a group with Ciccone, Storer, and Gee-West, just over one minute and 40 seconds back. Movistar leader Enric Mas also had a dreadful day. A four-time Grand Tour podium finisher at the Vuelta a Espana, his first Giro d’Italia now looks to be done from a GC perspective, having lost almost six minutes to Vingegaard with more than two weeks of the race remaining. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms