CORNO ALLE SCALE, Italy (AP) — Pre-race favorite Jonas Vingegaard claimed another stage victory in the Giro d’Italia on Sunday to cut into Afonso Eulálio’s overall lead.

Vingegaard had won atop the Blockhaus two days ago and he repeated the feat on another uphill finish on the ninth stage.

Vingegaard crossed the line 12 seconds ahead of Felix Gall, at the end of the 184-kilometer (114-mile) route from Cervia to the top-category climb up Corno alle Scale. Davide Piganzoli was third, 34 seconds behind Visma-Lease a Bike teammate Vingegaard.

However, Eulálio crossed the line in fifth, 41 seconds behind Vingegaard. The Portuguese rider has an advantage of 2 minutes, 24 seconds over Vingegaard, with Gall 35 seconds further back.

“We are where we wanted to be, obviously,” Vingegaard said. “I’m in a good situation at the moment for GC (general classification) and so far everything is looking good for us. And we’re happy where we are.”

Giulio Ciccone, who narrowly missed out on Stage 4, had attacked from the breakaway and appeared set to solo to victory on Sunday but there was to be more heartbreak for the Italian rider.

The peloton had been nearly two minutes behind at the start of the final climb but Gall attacked and Vingegaard stuck to his wheel and they eventually swept past Ciccone with 1.7 kilometers remaining.

Gall kept trying to get his rival to come through and do some work but Vingegaard was happy to sit back until they passed the 1 kilometer remaining mark when the Danish rider came through and immediately gapped the Decathlon cyclist.

“We didn’t want to pull for the stage today and we realized quite quickly that Decathlon wanted to go for the stage,” Vingegaard said. “It’s always nice with a win, something I’m super happy with, my teammates did a super good job and once the win was within reach, we decided on the last climb to maybe try to go for it.”

Monday sees the Giro’s second rest day before Tuesday’s individual time trial on a flat, 42-kilometer (26-mile) route along the coast from Viareggio to Massa.

It is the only time trial in this year’s race.

The 109th men’s Giro ends on May 31 in Rome.

The women’s Giro runs from May 30-June 7 with Italian rider Elisa Longo Borghini as the defending champion.

___

AP cycling: https://apnews.com/hub/cycling