Vingegaard dominates as tempers fray on hot Giro stage

Vingegaard dominates as tempers fray on hot Giro stageImage source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Vingegaard won the 2022 and 2023 Tours de FranceByMatt WarwickBBC Sport Senior JournalistPublished5 minutes agoCommentsDenmark's two-time Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard dominated the mountainous stage 16 of the Giro d'Italia to increase his overall lead in the pink jersey.The Visma-Lease a Bike rider unleashed a powerful attack with about 10km to go and rode away from his competitors, at times achieving speeds of 23km/h at gradients of 12%.On a hot day in the Italian and Swiss Alps several riders lost time. Italy's Giulio Ciccone became frustrated by the lack of lead he and his fellow breakaway riders had built up, launching a full drinks bottle back at his team helper through spectators on the side of the road. Ciccone's Lidl-Trek team-mate Derek Gee-West and other main contenders for the general classification such as Australia's Michael Storer all started to lose ground to Vingegaard's infernal pace, showing the overwhelming favourite for victory in Rome on Sunday is head and shoulders above the rest of the peloton.In Cari in Switzerland, Vingegaard, after 113km of riding, finished one minute and nine seconds ahead of Austria's Felix Gall of Decathlon-CMA CGM.Gall finished two seconds ahead of Australia's Jai Hindley of Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, the 2022 Giro winner.His Red Bull team-mate Giulio Pellizzari had been a joint contender for pink with Hindley but the Italian blew up on Tuesday's climb, finishing more than 18 minutes behind.The final week of the three-week Giro is infamous for the changing fortunes of riders who have taken a commanding lead into the remaining mountain stages, but no-one expects Vingegaard to suffer.Vingegaard has been patient in taking control of the race, which had been led for nine stages by Portugal's Afonso Eulalio of Bahrain-Victorious.As is customary, 29-year-old Vingegaard kiss...