Not even a blistering summit finish success for Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) on the Blockhaus in the Giro d’Italia on Friday could overshadow the stunning performance by Felix Gall, just 13 seconds down at the summit. So the million-dollar question is – what can the Austrian climber achieve now?
Previously widely rated as an outsider in the GC battle, with the honourable exception of Afonso Eulálio (Bahrain Victorious) who is not expected to maintain his hold on pink beyond Tuesday’s TT, Gall has now suddenly jumped up the unofficial hierarchy to the current closest long-term opponent of Vingegaard.
That didn’t change on Saturday’s stage over the muri of Tirreno-Adriatico, either, as Gall finished in the same group as the rest of the pink jersey favourites at 1:53 on the day’s winner Jhonatan Narváez (UAE Team Emirates-XRG).
He therefore remains at 3:34 down on overall leader Eulálio, just 19 seconds down on Vingegaard, and if Tuesday’s time trial looks like a serious obstacle for him to cross, before that Sunday’s cat. 1 summit finish at Corno alle Scale could play in his favour.
As Roberts pointed out, what helped make a difference, too, was how the squad set Gall up well on the climb early on, with Callum Scotson and Gregor Mühlberger amongst those teammates doing a good job. The Australian and Gall’s fellow-Austrian were key to putting him in position in the opening kilometres, with Mühlberger helping to keep him out of the wind. But if the foundation stones were in place thanks to them, it was always up to Gall to make the most of his squad’s hard work – which as Roberts said, he duly did.
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at CyclingNews RSS Feed…