Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard won the summit of the third stage in a six-day race, promising to look for more victories in the CRO race this week.

Wingegaard was forced to take an extended break after winning the Tour de France title, but in his return in the CRO race, he proved that he has both gravel and cement sections on the tricky and steep 15% climb to the Madonna of Loreto on Thursday

After a thrilling uphill battle, Vingegaard finished ahead of mountain leader Oscar Only (Team DSM). He moved into second place overall, one second behind stage two winner Jonathan Milan (Bahrain Victorious).

Apart from the CRO race and the good news for Il Lombardia, the main end-of-season challenge in a week's time, Vingegaard said he was happy to have pulled off such a "very difficult finish."

"It was a very bumpy road, very hard to pedal," he said. But my legs were good today and I worked hard all day for it, so I'm happy to win."

Jumbo Visma showed early on that he was the real deal, leading the pack at a fast pace until the foot of the final climb. Vingegaard was mainly behind the wheel at the finish of the climb, where the gradient and surface were so extreme that it was important not to miss the timing.

Two more very undulating stages followed, but Vingegaard promised that he would not be satisfied with just one win in his return to racing.

"There are still more stages to come and I don't know if I'm leading or not.

"But I'm in good shape. I'm also happy to win at the end of the season. I usually wasn't doing so well at the end of the season, so of course I'm happy to finally win."

Vingegaard's most recent win in a professional season was three years ago, on the toughest stage of the Tour de Pollogne in August 2019, a far cry from what the entire cycling world has seen the Danish racer successfully achieve since then.

Regardless of past history, however, the CRO race victory confirms that Vingegaard is not over yet in 2022.