ITALY’S VINCENZO NIBALI of Astana escaped alone to a summit-finish victory in the 19th stage of the Giro d’Italia today whilst Colombia’s Esteban Chaves rode into the pink jersey by coming third on the day.
Pre-race favourite Nibali, 31, had been thought to be dead and buried at this Giro after starting the day fourth overall at 4min 43sec behind, but is now just 44 seconds off the pace in second, ahead of another mountain stage on tomorrow.
The 2013 champion looked like a man transformed on the final climb and wept openly after crossing the finish line for his sixth Giro stage win overall, before dedicating the victory to a deceased 14-year-old cyclist killed in an accident ten days ago.
The victory came after the ‘Shark’ had come in for fierce criticism in the Italian press throughout the race and had been on the brink of being withdrawn by his coach Paolo Slongo after suffering from an illness over the previous days.
Sky’s Mikel Nieve was second on the day, just a couple of seconds ahead of Chaves.
Overnight leader Steven Kruijswijk finished almost five minutes off the pace after surviving a spectacular head-over-heels fall on the rapid descent of the Col d’Agnel but then got dropped on the last climb.
Kruijswijk’s team-mates had all been dropped by the time of the fall, when he hit a huge wall of snow at 2700m altitude, and his team car was too far away to give him a new bike in good time, so he began the last climb already two minutes off the pace and with a bloody elbow.
The overnight leader showed real guts going up the last climb alone but finished 4min 54sec off Nibali, dropping to third overall at 1min 05sec.
The fifth-placed rider at the start of the day, Russia’s Ilnur Zakarin ended it motionless at the bottom of a ditch with a broken collarbone after a terrible crash on a 40km descent between the day’s two climbs.
Chaves, a 26-year-old climber from Bogota, managed to stay within striking distance of Nibali and rode a wonderfully-paced second climb, after also leading the first one, to finish 53sec adrift of Nibali.
Spanish veteran Alejandro Valverde also struggled to follow the pure climbers Nibali and Chaves, and crossed the line with Rafal Majka 2min 11sec after the winner.
The result sees Valverde drop from third to fourth overall.
It leaves things finely poised ahead of tomorrow’s 134km mountain stage, the last opportunity for riders to make a victory bid, with three summits to scale at over 2000m.
The42 is on Snapchat! Tap the button below on your phone to add!
