The battle for the Giro d'Italia is set to come down to Saturday's penultimate stage on the famous Colle delle Finestre after Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) raced together to the finish line on stage 19 in Champoluc.
Maglia rosa Del Toro was the only man able to match an attack by Carapaz with 7km to go on the 166km stage through the high Alps as the pair left behind third-placed Simon Yates (Visma-Lease A Bike) and the remainder of the GC favourites.
At the finish line, Del Toro picked up what may be a vital two seconds, nipping ahead of his Ecuadorian rival in the sprint to finish a day which brought 4,950 metres of climbing.
The pair finished 58 seconds behind the stage winner, breakaway survivor Nicolas Prodhomme (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale). Both gained 24 seconds on the road over Yates, Derek Gee (Israel-Premier Tech) and the select chasing GC group, with Del Toro adding a six-second bonus and Carapaz adding four seconds.
Carapaz was pleased with his day's effort, saying after the stage that he had to give it a go, even if he wasn't able to dislodge the race leader.
"I think we were all very tired, and in the end I just had to give it a try, but I think it was a good stage," he said.
"I think we could make it with Del Toro, so I've got to be happy with my performance."
21-year-old Del Toro said he knew that Carapaz would try again during stage 19 – as he did with a move earlier in the day – but he was happy to stay with him and grab a handful of extra bonus seconds.
"He keeps trying, as we thought in the team," Del Toro said. "Of course, in the last climb, he tried harder and with all the speed he could because it wasn't so steep.
"I had the legs to be with him. Today we play more to secure the bonus, I cannot take more risks."
The Mexican now faces a stage 20 battle to retain the pink jersey into Sunday's final stage in Rome. He leads 2019 Giro champion Carapaz by 43 seconds, while Yates, the only other man within two minutes of the lead, lies 1:21 down.
The GC men will do battle for one last time on the 205km stage to Sestriere, which will take 4,500 metres of climbing across the second-category Colle de Lys (13.7km at 4.3%), the part-gravel Cima Coppi climb of the Colle dell Finestre (18.5km at 9.2%), and third-category final climb to Sestriere (16.2km at 3.8%).
Michael Storer (Tudor), who lies ninth overall after stage 19, predicted a tired GC battle on the Finestre and Sestriere on Saturday. He said that the race up the final climb on Friday's stage was run at 7 w/kg, preventing any major attacks at the front.
"Everyone's going to be really tired tomorrow, I think," he said. "I think nobody could attack because we were already on the limit.
"With the speed we were going, nowhere could really go anywhere. What could you do? 7w/kg for the whole last climb. That's why they waited until the end to really kick it off."
