AOSTA, Italy, May ⁠23 (Reuters) - Denmark's Jonas Vingegaard took ⁠the Giro d'Italia leader's pink jersey ‌for the first time after completing a hat-trick of stage wins, as the race favourite soloed ​to the summit to take ⁠stage 14 on ⁠Saturday, proving too strong for his rivals ⁠in ‌the Alps.

The Visma-Lease a Bike rider, already successful on the ⁠summit finishes on stages seven and ​nine, attacked ‌with less than 5 km left ⁠of the ​gruelling 133-km ride from Aosta to Pila, and now looks set to win ⁠the Giro at his first ​attempt.

Austrian Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM) was second, 49 seconds behind, with Australian former winner ⁠Jai Hindley taking third.

Portugal's Afonso Eulalio (Bahrain Victorious), who had hung onto the pink jersey since taking the overall lead ​after stage five, trailed ⁠in almost three minutes behind Vingegaard, and ​drops to second place, ‌2 minutes 26 seconds ​off the new leader.

(Reporting by Trevor Stynes; Editing by Kevin Liffey)