Maglia rosa Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates) extended his lead in the Giro d'Italia, following an attack by Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) and then out-sprinting his rival to take second on the stage behind Frenchman Nicolas Prodhomme (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale).
The Mexican was still amazed to be in the pink jersey with only two stages to go after coming into the race as a domestique.
"It's incredible. I cannot believe I'm this guy - this is such an incredible thing. I cannot believe I was up there. It's just great to be here, and thanks to the teammates, I can do these things and all the confidence they give to me."
Carapaz added to his advantage with third on the stage, taking 22 seconds on third-placed Simon Yates (Visma-Lease a Bike), who finished in the chasing group with the rest of the GC contenders, led to the line by Damiano Caruso (Bahrain Victorious).
As the chasers sprinted for the line, Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) crashed in the final turn but appeared to be more embarrassed than injured in the incident.
Nicolas Prodhomme celebrates his first Grand Tour stage win (Image credit: Getty Images)
Nicolas Prodhomme (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) soloed to victory on stage 19 of the Giro d'Italia, leaping away from the remnants of the day's breakaway on the penultimate climb with 28km to go.
It was the first Grand Tour victory for the 28-year-old and his team's only major result of the race so far.
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Prodhomme showed his form coming into the race with his first pro win in the Tour of the Alps, and he was overjoyed to finally claim a stage of the Giro d'Italia.
"I wanted to try to win the stage. I waited a long time for a win - and I won my first race three weeks ago. And now I win here in the Giro d'Italia. I'm very happy. It was a goal with the team to win one stage, and now it's OK."
Prodhomme was active throughout the stage, joining the breakaway on the first climb in the opening kilometres, then following the constantly changing situation until he took matters into his own hands, attacking at the top of the Col Saint-Pantaléon to thin out the lead group.
Then, with just two riders left by his side, Prodhomme attacked with 7.2km to go on the penultimate climb, the Col de Joux, and held on to win the stage.
"We didn't have a lot of a gap. When I followed the first attack, my feeling was not very good - my legs were very bad on the first climb, it was very steep and hard. In the last climb, I could see the gap was not very big, and I needed to take a risk because before today, I had two top-fives because I didn't take a lot of risks. But today I wanted to play for the win."
How it unfolded
The pack rides after the start in Biella during the stage 19 of the 108th Giro d'Italia (Image credit: Getty Images)
Stage 19 signalled the beginning of the Giro d'Italia end game, with five massive climbs punctuating a brutal 166-kilometre route from Biella to Champoluc.
The sun was out and the roads dry, but with temperatures soaring, the conditions made a rough day in the saddle even harder.
The first climb, the category 3 Croce Serra, kicked up after just 3.7km of riding, and there was a lot of action on the ascent. Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) attacked like a boomerang, jetting out the front only to be caught and dropped.
EF Education-EasyPost were keen to put a rider in the breakaway to have support for Richard Carapaz, and sent Georg Steinhauser on the attack. He was joined by Nicolas Prodhomme (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) and Jan Tratnik (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe). They were joined by Bart Lemmen (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Mattia Cattaneo (Soudal-Quickstep), but the breakaway hadn't been established yet.
Four men were left with a 30-second gap as they neared the summit: Cattaneo, Steinhauser, Lemmen and Prodhomme. Behind, a large group of chasers formed and reformed as Cattaneo led the breakaway over the climb.
The action in the peloton continued on the descent and flat roads of the valley. Steinhauser led over the sprint in Pont-Saint-Martin, and in the peloton, Lidl-Trek made sure any chasers were caught so that Pedersen could sweep up the points for fifth.
The sprint was a good excuse for another attack from the bunch, and Pedersen propelled teammates Carlos Verona, Patrick Konrad and Jacopo Mosca into the move before dropping back.
Col Tzecore and Col Saint-Pantaléon
The peloton racing on the Col Tzecore (Image credit: Getty Images)
The 33 riders in the chase caught the four leaders as they started up the Col Tzecore, with most of the teams represented. Having missed the move, Intermarché-Wanty sent Louis Meintjes up the road with Alessandro Tonelli (Polti-VisitMalta) to join the escape.
Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious) was the highest-placed rider in the move, in 15th place at 14:48 from Del Toro.
Christian Scaroni (XDS Astana) led the large breakaway over the summit of the category 1 Col Tzecore to protect teammate Lorenzo Fortunato's lead in the mountains classification.
There was barely time to breathe before the next category 1 climb, the Col Saint-Pantaléon began. The peloton eased up and let the breakaway gain 3:10 by the time they reached the valley.
There was no peace treaty in the breakaway, and Chris Harper (Jayco-AlUla) launched an attack to thin out the group. He was joined by Tiberi, Prodhomme, Verona, Steinhauser, Meintjes, Lemmen and Igor Arrieta (UAE Team Emirates XRG).
Prodhomme attacked near the summit of the Col Saint-Pantaléon, drawing out Verona, with Tiberi and Arrieta just behind. They had 2:00 on the maglia rosa group with Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious), Lemmen, and Meintjes in no man's land.
Col de Joux
Nicolas Prodhomme goes solo on stage 19 (Image credit: Getty Images)
After a long descent, the breakaway started up the Col de Joux, the third category 1 ascent in a row. Verona and Tiberi surged into the base of the climb, and while Prodhomme scrambled across, Arrieta drifted back to the chase group.
With no riders left in the attack, EF Education-EasyPost led the chase in the maglia rosa group, three minutes behind the leaders.
Visma-Lease a Bike took over control of the chase, steadily chipping away at the gap. With 10km to the summit of the Col de Joux, the leaders had less than two minutes. Sensing the pressure, Prodhomme kept pushing the pace, and it briefly became too much for Tiberi, but he put his head down and rode his way back to them.
Prodhomme stuck the knife in soon after, attacking with 7.2km to the summit. He rapidly distanced Verona and Tiberi, but the pink jersey group was closing in, just 1:10 back.
Verona and Tiberi sat up and were caught by the maglia rosa group, leaving the Frenchman on his own. As they came back, Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) made a probing attack, with Carapaz showing his cards by quickly following.
UAE Team Emirates were still well equipped with Rafał Majka and Brandon McNulty setting the pace and shutting down the moves. Just 12 riders made up the chase group, with Tiberi joining teammate Damiano Caruso. Also, there were the rest of the top 10 on GC, barring Adam Yates, who fell off the pace on the lower slopes.
With the UAE riders were Carapaz, Egan Bernal (Ineos), Einer Rubio (Movistar), Derek Gee (Israel-Premier Tech), Michael Storer (Tudor), Simon Yates (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Pellizzari.
Carapaz attacked in the last kilometre of the climb, quickly marked by Simon Yates and Del Toro. The surge gapped out Bernal, Rubio, Pellizzari and Storer, but UAE Team Emirates XRG shut the move down, and the pink jersey group came back together, chasing at just under a minute at the summit.
Antagnod
Richard Carapaz attacks Isaac del Toro on stage 19 (Image credit: Getty Images)
Pellizzari attempted an attack just before the KOM line atop the Col de Joux, but Majka shut him down and gestured for everyone to remain calm for the short descent.
The easing of the pace allowed Prodhomme to gain more time, and he started the final climb, the category 2 Antagnod, with a 1:24 lead on the maglia rosa.
The pace was so steady that it seemed as if there would be no action from the GC contenders, but with 6.7km to go and 1.8km to the top, Carapaz launched a vicious acceleration.
While Del Toro was quick to mark the Ecuadorian, Yates and Gee were left behind. The duo gained 15 seconds on the chase before Gee attacked and was unsuccessful in ditching his companions.
Meanwhile, Prodhomme was riding out of his skin to keep his gap of one minute. Carapaz was forced to do all the work to cement his second place in the GC, as Del Toro was content to sit on.
Prodhomme made it over the top with his gap still intact and cruised to the biggest result of his career, his first WorldTour victory and first Grand Tour stage win.
Nicolas Prodhomme wins stage 19 (Image credit: Getty Images)
Laura Weislo is a Cyclingnews veteran of 20 years. Having joined in 2006, Laura extensively covered the Operacion Puerto doping scandal, the years-long conflict between the UCI and the Tour de France organisers ASO over the creation of the WorldTour, and the downfall of Lance Armstrong and his lifetime ban for doping. As Managing Editor, Laura coordinates coverage for North American events and global news.
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