It was easy to assume that Jonas Vingegaard would walk this Giro d'Italia. After all, he is a man who has won two Tours de France and a Vuelta a España, while his biggest general classification rivals are largely considered to not have the same top level; there is no other GC hopeful present within the top-15 of the UCI rankings.
Cycling is not that simple. On the first summit finish of this year's race, on Blockhaus on stage seven, Vingegaard of Visma-Lease a Bike might have won, but there was no knockout blow, no decisive time gap. Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM) rode his race, limited his losses after the inevitable attack by the Dane, and finished just 13 seconds behind.
After bonus seconds, he is 17 seconds in arrears to Vingegaard, while the Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe pair of Jai Hindley and Giulio Pellizzari sit 1:08 and 1:11 back from Vingegaard. The stage winner is also not in control of the pink jersey, with that belonging to Afonso Eulálio (Bahrain-Victorious), 3:17 ahead.
"It was a really hard pace from the bottom from Visma," Gall said in a flash TV interview post-stage. "At first I was a bit annoyed that I couldn't follow Pellizzari and Jonas, but in the end it was good that I did my own pace."
Perhaps fittingly, the Austrian played a clever game on Blockhaus, the climb named after an emplacement built by Austrian Empire troops in the 19th century, when their country controlled parts of the Italian peninsula.
While Pellizzari tried to stick to Vingegaard's wheel immediately after he attacked with 5.5km to go, Gall rode at his own tempo, at a speed he knew he could keep up. Pellizzari, the young Italian, suffered as a result of trying to match Vingegaard, while Gall was able to close the gap somewhat, and keep the stage winner in sight at the finish.
"Felix is a very strong rider, so we knew he'd be up there close," Vingegaard, for his part, said. "He's a big rival and so he is a guy we have to worry about."
In truth, the 29-year-old Dane remains the overwhelming favourite for the Giro, despite not being decisively ahead in the race, as many expected him to be already at the race.
There are many big moments to come, including two particularly mountainous days on stages 19 and 20, in the Dolomites and Julian Alps. There is another summit finish on Sunday, and then also the small matter of the long time trial on Tuesday, a discipline that normally favours Vingegaard over his rivals. Things could look more as expected very quickly.
Gall is a solid GC rider, but has never finished higher than fifth at a Grand Tour, last year's Tour de France his best result to date. He remains the underdog, while Hindley and Pellizzari, Ben O'Connor (Jayco AlUla), Thymen Arensman (Netcompany-Ineos) are not out of it completely, but have lost significant time Vingegaard that it might be race-losing.
"I'd say he's, for example, a much better time trialist than me for a start," Gall said of his rival.
"He's the best Grand Tour rider we currently have next to Tadej [Pogačar], so, for sure, I'm not thinking about how to beat him for now, I'm just happy with my performance."
However, Friday's stage offered a glimmer of hope that we might have a race on our hands, and that this Giro won't be a one-horse affair after all. That knockout blow hasn't landed, meaning we will go on for at least another couple of rounds.
