Nairo Quintana (Movistar Team) has retaken the lead at the Giro d’Italia today after race leader Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) cracked on the final climb Category-1 to Piancavallo.
The 191-kilometre 19th stage from San Candido/Innichen included two other categorised climbs en route as well as the non-categorised Cima Sappada.
After 37 kilometres of the stage, a group forged ahead and were later joined by a chase group which included Quintana and Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida). Dumoulin was caught behind and it took a hard chase from his team but after 93 kilometres, the race was back together.
On the final climb, Mikel Landa (Team Sky) went away early and would go on to take a well-deserved stage win. Behind, the battle started amongst the GC contenders and Dumoulin started to struggle.
Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) attacked with Nibali and Quintana following and the Frenchman gained a handful of seconds on the other contenders. Domenico Pozzovivo (AG2R La Mondiale) and Ilnur Zakarin (Team Katusha Alpecin) finished six seconds behind followed soon after by Nibali and Quintana. Quintana now leads Dumoulin by 38″ with Nibali a further 5″ back.
The race continues tomorrow with another mountainous stage to Asiago and concludes on Sunday with a 29.3-kilometre time-trial from Monza to Milan. With four riders within one minute of each other, this Giro is set to go down to the wire.
Nairo Quintana: “It was a very, very hard day, where all the efforts from Thursday and the stages before ended up paying off. We’ve spent the whole Giro working our hearts out to take the overall win, and we had to keep trying again today.
“We took a long shot at that descent with most of the team, and also pushed hard into the final climb, initially with a strong relay from Winner Anacona and then with Rojas and José Herrada, who gave all they had at their own moments. The impressive job by the whole team was evident again this time, and I can’t thank them enough and recoginise all that they do for me, not only riders but the whole staff, sports directors… We planned a good strategy, we delivered and we were able to make the race leader crack and remain close to the rest of GC contenders.
“You’ve always got doubts about what wheel should you follow on that final climb. I knew I had to keep an eye especially on Nibali, but sometimes, it’s up to other rivals to leave you behind and create gaps which are really difficult to close. However, you also need to measure your efforts well. Sometimes, a pedal stroke too much means precious seconds that you lose at the end.
“We just hope to keep this strong line tomorrow and defend ourselves well. The TT on Sunday – well, that’s a final battle, one-to-one, where we must leave everything that we’ve got. There’s a lot of pressure on our shoulders, our rivals are also really strong, but we’ve got the Maglia Rosa at the moment and we will try to defend it with honour. We’ve got a veteran group, we’re consistent, experienced, and I trust my whole group of team-mates to defend ourselves well tomorrow.”
