Giro d'Italia favourite Jonas Vingegaard has taken the leader's pink jersey with his third stage win of the race while Australia's former champ Jai Hindley made a significant move towards the podium in Pila.
Double Tour de France champ Vingegaard was in magisterial mood on the Alpine summit of stage 14, looking unstoppable in his bid to become the eighth rider to win all three Grand Tours as he roared away on the final climb to win by 49 seconds from Felix Gall.
But Hindley, helped by his co-team leader for Red Bull BORA-hansgrohe Giulio Pellizzari, battled to third on the mountain top, finishing 58 seconds behind the great Dane Vingegaard to move up one place to fifth in the general classification.
Hindley's now the leading Australian, two spots ahead of Tudor Pro's Michael Storer, who also finished seventh on the day, but Ben O'Connor, who was reported to have suffered a pre-race collision with fellow Aussie rider Jensen Plowright, unsurprisingly shipped time to slip from fifth to eighth overall.
Hindley's strength is usually a formidable last week so he's moving nicely into contention for a big push, currently looking the stronger of Red Bull's co-leaders though the team is still in a healthy position to unleash either of them as key weapons.
On the 133km ride from Aosta, a brutal affair with five climbs, Vingegaard's Visma-Lease a Bike teammates cut out all the hard work to set him loose on the 20-hairpin final ascent on which race leader Afonso Eulalio finally surrendered the lead he's clung on to since stage five.
"It was really impressive how my teammates rode, and I'm so proud of them, so proud that I can pay them back -- it's a super nice win," said the Dane.
Already a winner on the summit finishes of stages seven and nine, there was no living with him once he attacked with less than 5km, but Eulalio, 15th on the day, has held on to second overall at 2:26 behind Vingegaard.
Austrian Gall looks strong in third at 2:50, Dutch star Thymen Arensman is fourth at 3:03 with Hindley fifth at 3:43, Pellizzari sixth at 4:22, Storer seventh at 4:46 and O'Connor now 5:22 behind.
Sunday's stage 15 takes the riders 157 km from Voghera to Milan.
