After his first stage win at the Giro, Vingegaard is now one of the 100 or so riders who have celebrated at least one stage win in all Grand Tours. If he also wins the Tour in the end, the circle into which he would then move up after winning the Tour and Vuelta will be significantly smaller. In any case, the 29-year-old has impressively underlined his position as favourite for overall victory at the Blockhaus.

However, Vingegaard is not yet in pink. The overall leader is still Afonso Eulalio (Bahrain - Victorious), who lost half of his lead at the Blockhaus, but still has a 3:17 minute cushion on the Visma captain, who is now second. "Today is a great day for me," said Vingegaard after the race. "I won my first stage at the Giro. And I'm happy that I was able to make up time on the pink jersey and my rivals."

Vingegaard gained at least a minute on the rest of the competition, with the exception of Gall. The new third in the overall standings, 3:34 minutes behind Rosa, had to let the high-flyer go when he attacked around the six-kilometre mark. When Vingegaard attacked, only Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe) initially went with him. But the young Italian was to regret this less than 2000 metres later. Because Vingegaard kept the pace high the whole time. And when Pellizzari had to let go, his legs really opened up. He was also unable to keep up with Gall, who caught up with him shortly afterwards. He fell back into the group behind with his team-mate Jai Hindley and Ben O'Connor.

Hindley, who had won the last uphill finish at the Blockhaus in 2022, eventually finished third, 1:02 minutes behind, with Pellizzari three seconds behind in fourth.

Giro d'Italia 2026 - Results of the 7th stage

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How the 7th stage of the Giro d'Italia 2026 went

At 244 kilometres, the longest stage of the tour was one that a sprinter wanted to have a say in. At least in part. Jonathan Milan (Lidl - Trek) initiated the breakaway group of the day and found Diego Pablo Sevilla (Team Polti VisitMalta), Tim Naberman (Team Picnic PostNL), Jardi Christiaan van der Lee (EF Education - EasyPost) and Nickolas Zukowsky (Pinarello Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team) in the mountain jersey.

After 112 kilometres, Milan secured his goal for the day, the intermediate sprint, to make up a few points on the Maglia Ciclamino of Paul Magnier (Soudal Quick-Step). However, he rode on to the first categorised climb of the day in Roccaraso (2nd category). There he took it a little easier and dropped back. Sevilla collected his points for the mountain classification there, but these were not enough to defend the jersey, as Vingegaard collected 50 points at the Blockhaus and is therefore one point ahead of the Spaniard. The lead of the remaining quartet was six minutes. It then began to rain. In the ups and downs up to the final climb, Bahrain - Victorious and Visma | Lease a Bike significantly reduced the gap to the escapees. With 30 kilometres to go, in the middle of a descent, there were only just under three minutes left.

Gall even makes up ground in the final

The gap continued to narrow until the final climb, but this soon became irrelevant as it soon became clear that the lead would not be enough to win the stage.

Just over six kilometres from the finish, van der Lee and Zukowsky were then caught by the now small group of favourites. Shortly afterwards, Vingegaard attacked. While Pellizzari fought his way to his rear wheel, Gall quickly realised that this attempt would cost him dearly and broke off. None of the others were able to react at all. Although Vingegaard stepped up the pace further, Pellizzari stayed on at first, but then had to let go just under two kilometres later.

He had overtaken himself and quickly realised this when he could no longer follow Gall, who caught up with him shortly afterwards. While the 28-year-old kept the gap to the leader constant and was even able to make up a few seconds in the finale, Pellizzari dropped back to the next duo behind, consisting of Hindley and O'Connor. Hindley took over the pace work in the group, which was crucial, as large parts of the treeless climb had to be ridden into a strong headwind. Previously, when the groups were even larger, windy groups had formed.

Vingegaard reached the finish after more than six hours. He needed less than 40 minutes for the Blockhaus climb, breaking the old record set by Nairo Quintana in 2017. His compatriot Egan Bernal (Netcompany INEOS), on the other hand, did not have a good day. Just like Enric Mas (Movistar Team), he was no longer part of the leading group when the last breakaway riders were caught. Bernal still made it into the pink jersey group three minutes behind the winner. Mas took double the time.