Cari (Switzerland) (AFP) - Jonas Vingegaard soloed to victory in the 16th stage of the Giro d’Italia on Tuesday in the Swiss resort of Cari to tighten his grip on the overall race lead.

The Dane launched his attack 6.5km from the finish line at the end of 113km stage raced entirely within Switzerland to claim his fourth win in as many summit finishes.

Vingegaard finished more than a minute ahead of Austria’s Felix Gall and Australia’s Jay Hindley to consolidate his pink jersey with a lead of more than four minutes with five stages left until the final stage in Rome on Sunday.

“My teammates and I were very motivated, we wanted to try to win while wearing the pink jersey,” said Vingegaard.

“We decided to go for it at the first opportunity because if it hadn’t worked out we would still have had another chance later on.”

The 29-year-old Visma Lease a Bike rider is bidding to become just the eighth man to complete the clean sweep of the three Grand Tours.

Having won the Tour de France in 2022 and 2023, and the Vuelta a Espana last year, he is now well-placed in the Giro’s pink jersey.

On Tuesday, Vingegaard secured his tenth win of the season, more than any other rider in the peloton including Slovenian Tadej Pogacar, who has nine.

Before the Giro, the stage race specialist had won the Paris-Nice and the Tour of Catalonia, each time with two stage wins.

And he has continued his momentum in the Italian race deprived of big stars including Pogacar, who won six stages on his way to overall victory in the 2024 edition, before also triumphing in the Tour de France two months later.

“I’m taking it day by day. There are still four stages left and we’ll see what we can do between now and the end of the race,” added Vingegaard.

- Testy in the heat -

Vingegaard ensured his team worked hard to limit the breakaway riders to no more than two minutes.

That group included Italian Giulio Ciccone, chasing mountain points, and unfortunately for Paul Magnier, Jhonatan Narvaez, eyeing the points jersey.

The Ecuadorian took full advantage at the intermediate sprint to close the gap to just two points on Frenchman Magnier in the points classification.

Meanwhile the antics of Narvaez and Ciccone, so nervous that he snapped at one of his assistants for giving him the wrong water bottle, livened proceedings under the blazing sun.

Riders began to drop off immediately on the final climb to Cari including Giulio Pellizzari, Afonso Eulalio and Ben O’Connor, followed then by Mathys Rondel and Michael Storer.

Only six riders remained when Vingegaard’s right-hand man Davide Piganzoli pulled aside to let his team leader go.

Gall was the only one to react before waiting for the other podium contenders to try to limit the damage together. But Vingegaard could not be caught.

“Once again he showed who’s the boss, he’s just doing his thing,” said Gall, who finished second for the fourth time behind Vingegaard.

Wednesday’s 17th stage is a hilly 202km ride from Cassoano d’Adda north-east of Milan to Andalo in the Dolomites.