Vingegaard detonates Giro, takes over pink jersey.

BOOM! Visma Lease-a-Bike puts everyone in their place -- far behind Vingegaard.

Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM) waited for the explosion to happen.

Somewhere up the relentless 16 kilometer climb to the ski station at Pila, Jonas Vingegaard was going to blow up the race.

Up the mountain they all went. The Visma Lease-A-Bike squad had taken control of stage 14 of the Giro d’Italia right from the gun. Vingegaard had a high speed train up the mountain. There was Victor Campenaerts, Sepp Kuss and Davide Piganzoli all shredding the field.

Everyone else was hanging on for dear life. One of the first to go was the pink jersey of Alfonso Eulálio (Bahrain Victorious). After over a week in the maglia rosa, he was cooked.

One by one the other riders, elite climbers all, start falling back and dropping off. Tick, tick, tick, tick. Then at the 4.6 kilometer mark, Vingegaard shot off the wheel of his teammate Piganzoli. BOOM.

Only Felix Gall could even stay close. The gap opened steadily even as the Austrian climber kept his diesel engine running as hard as he could.

Further down the sloped, teammates Jai Hindley and Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) worked together to stay in contention for a podium spot. Impressive work from the Italian who had suffered through illness and was now on the road to recovery.

Gall fights on but the gap in the final kilometer to the line is now 45 seconds. He’s back on the podium and clearly the strongest mountain man not named Vingegaard. But he’s not even on the same level as the Dane.

And really, how hard is Vingegaard actually pushing himself? As race commentators Robbie McKuen and Matt Stephens said, it looks like he’s holding back just a bit. That he still has something left under the hood. Still thinking about the reserves he needs to keep in order to beat Tadej Pogacar in the Tour de France.

So, yes, an explosion but not perhaps a seismic one. A tactical detonation.

Nonetheless, Vingegaard does plenty of damage. He now has 2:26 on Eulálio and 2:50 on Gall. He slips into the pink jersey and barring unforeseen events, he’ll be sporting that attire on the final stage in Rome.

Felix Gall knew it was coming and so did Elario, Hindley, Pellizzari and Arensman. It’s not something they could do anything about.