Visma | Lease a Bike seized the day from the gun and never let go, controlling a five-climb Aosta Valley stage in unseasonable heat. A huge early move went clear over the opening Saint-Barthélemy — Mattia Bais first, then a swollen group including Giulio Ciccone, Enric Mas, Jan Christen, Jhonatan Narváez, Wout Poels and Einer Rubio — but its maximum advantage of around four minutes was always on a Visma leash, shrinking to roughly two minutes as the race hit the final climb to Pila.
The decisive selection came on the 16.5 km haul to the ski resort. With about 9 km to the summit, Wout Poels accelerated and only Ciccone and Rubio could follow immediately; further down the slope the pink jersey of Afonso Eulálio cracked and lost contact with the GC group, with Derek Gee-West and Ben O'Connor also distanced. The breakaway remnants were swallowed as the favourites closed; Ciccone and Rubio rolled the dice with a last attack inside 5.5 km to go before a Davide Piganzoli-led acceleration came past 400 m later.
With 4.6 km remaining, Vingegaard launched and the race was effectively over. Metre by metre the Dane distanced everyone and soloed to victory — his third stage win of this Giro, all on summit finishes. Felix Gall, the best of the rest for the third time, crossed 49 seconds back, with Jai Hindley at +0:58 and Piganzoli and Giulio Pellizzari a little further adrift.
Eulálio limped home 2:26 down. He keeps second place, but the buffer he had carried since stage 5 is gone — Vingegaard now wears pink for the first time in his career and leads the Giro by 2:26.