"He has always been there for me" - Jonas Vingegaard over the moon with Sepp Kuss' victory at the Giro d'Italia

Jonas Vingegaard has won every single mountain stage of the Giro d'Italia until this Friday, but on this occasion, the leader of the Corsa Rosa was more than happy to give his teammate Sepp Kuss the opportunity to take the win - something which was accomplished perfectly.

"We knew that anything can happen in a stage like this. That's why we made the plan to send Sepp into the breakaway if they only started riding uphill, because then he would have a chance at the stage win," Vingegaard explained in a post-race interview with CyclingPro.net. "And that was ultimately where they went, and he was with them".

Visma did not have to do work early in the day as several teams looked to keep the race under control before the Passo Duran. There, the Visma leadout led the peloton, but did not look to stop anyone from going up the road. In the middle of all the escapees was Sepp Kuss, who was given freedom to fight for the stage win.

"I am so incredibly happy for Sepp, and it feels special for me too. He has always been there for me, in all the Grand Tours I have won.

In fact, Kuss was not only allowed, he was encouraged and motivated by Vingegaard himself to chase his own success on the stage.

And he never asks to be allowed to go for anything himself, not even now. I really had to tell him 'you have to go for it, you really have to do that'. The fact that it worked out is so well-deserved". The American attacked the final climb to Piani di Pezzè and rode to stage victory.

Behind, Visma did not look to cancel out the move, and a lot of work in the decisive phase of the race was done by Decathlon CMA CGM Team and Netcompany INEOS instead. Vingegaard followed Felix Gall and Jai Hindley on the final climb, not putting in an attack of his own.

"He just told me that he thought it would never happen again, but now it has happened after all. I think that in a way it also completes his career, so it is a special day for our entire team".

Kuss took the stage win and Vingegaard comfortably responded to the attacks that could cut his race lead. He is one day closer to a major achievement, as only Piancavallo stands in the way of his first pink jersey.

In the peloton, Davide Piganzoli created further differences to Afonso Eulálio, cutting down the gap in half. With just over a minute of lead, Vingegaard may put in his focus on supporting the Italian on the final mountain stage to achieve what is perhaps the only triumph that is still left.

"For me, it was more about maintaining control and keeping the opportunity open for Sepp. The team has shown again how strong we are and that is why I stayed out of trouble, but another tough day is still to come," he concluded. "We have to stay focused and we do that automatically, all the way to Rome. We will keep doing everything right".