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Jonas Vinegaard (Visma-Lease A Bike) seized control of Tirreno-Adriatico with a crushing victory on stage 5 to Valle Castellana. The Dane ripped clear of his rivals with a rasping attack on the climb of San Giacomo with some 28km remaining to move into the overall lead.
Previous leader Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) and Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) led the chasers across the line, 1:12 down on the Dane. In the overall standings, Vingegaard is now just under a minute clear of Ayuso.
First Ben O’Connor (Decathlon-AG2R) and then Hindley had attempted to limit the damage when Vingegaard attacked, but the Dane amassed an unassailable lead on the four kilometres of the climb that remained, cresting the summit with a lead just shy of a minute on the chasers.
On the upper reaches of the climb, Ayuso and his UAE Team Emirates companion Isaac del Toro joined O’Connor, Hindley, Ivan Sosa (Movistar) and Thymen Arensman (Ineos) in a chasing group that was policed by Vingegaard’s teammate Cian Uijtdebroeks.
Out in front, however, Vingegaard never relented. In a reprise of his displays at O Gran Camiño last month, the Tour de France champion looked equally at ease on the descent off San Giacomo, and there was never any real prospect of the chasers marshalling a pursuit coherent enough to claw him back.
Vingegaard still had 53 seconds in hand on his pursuers by the time the road began to climb again in the final 8km, and he might light work of the shallow, unclassified ascent towards the finish to stretch out his advantage still further.
The rugged stage through Abruzzo had been animated by a break of strongmen featuring Alessandro De Marchi (Jayco Alula), Niccolò Bonifazio (Corratec-Vini Fantini), Andrea Vendrame (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Clement Davy (Groupama-FDJ), Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers), Simon Clarke (Israel-Premier Tech), Ivan García Cortina (Movistar), Damien Howson (Q36.5), Kasper Asgreen (Soudal-QuickStep) and Magnus Cort Nielsen (Uno-X Mobility), but Visma set out their intentions by keeping a tight rein on their lead.
The script already looked written on the lower slopes of San Giacomo, where Vingegaard’s teammates Attila Valter…
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