Giro d'Italia: Nibali wins as Kruijswijk crashes and loses pink

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Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) took emotional victory on hectic and breath-taking stage 19 of the Giro d’Italia. In a stage that saw the maglia rosa Steven Kruijswijk crash heavily, Nibali claimed valuable seconds on his rivals following a late attack on the last climb. Mikel Nieve (Team Sky) crossed the line in second place with Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEdge) in second.

After enduring a lot of criticism and pressure from the Italian press, the victory proved cathartic for Nibali who burst into tears soon after the line. Nibali has been the centre of attention at the Giro d’Italia and was close to being pulled from the race by his coach Paolo Slongo. However, the good news came to the Astana camp in that Nibali wasn’t ill and he could continue the race.

Astana set their stall out early, putting two riders into the break that went clear midway up the Colle dell’Agnello, Bakhtiyar Kozhatayev and Michele Scarponi. Kozhatayev was the first to drop back near the top of the ascent, burying himself for his leader. Nibali crested the top with Chaves and Kruijswijk and it looked like it would come down to a battle on the final ascent, until Kruijswijk misjudged a corner and ended up colliding with a bank of snow and somersaulting off his bike.

With only neutral service for help and no teammates left, Kruijswijk lost more than a minute before he set off again. The race leader was forced to stop not once but twice more on the descent, the final time to take a new bike, losing him yet more valuable time and allowing the dropped Alejandro Valverde to pass him. Meanwhile Nibali and Chaves continued to push down the descent with the added assistance of Orica-GreenEdge rider Ruben Plaza and later Scarponi, who had dropped back from the break to help their teammates.

By the time they reached the final climb to Risoul, Kruijswijk’s position in the maglia rosa was hanging in the balance. Plaza led them onto the climb before Scarponi took it up, pushing the gap to the race leader out even further. Nibali made his first move with nine kilometres to go but that was swiftly negated. Undeterred, he tried again with just over five kilometres to go, and while it was brought back by Chaves again the Astana rider could sense he had his rival on the ropes. Just a few hundred metres he went again and, this time, the gap remained.

Chaves held Nibali at close quarters for around a kilometre but he eventually had to relent and focus on his own race and the battle for the race lead. After more than four hours of breath-taking racing, Nibali crossed the line raising his two arms to the sky in celebration some 53 seconds ahead of Chaves.

Kruijswijk battled admirably alone but he cracked on the final climb lost almost five minutes following his crash, handing the race lead to Chaves. Nibali moved up to second place overall with Kruijswijk slipping down to third.

How it happened

The climax of the Giro d'Italia began with a brutal stage from Pinerolo to the French ski resort of Risoul. The route took the riders over the highest point of the race, the Cima Coppi, the Colle dell'Agnello. The sun was out at the start but the scene was very different at the top of the Cima Coppi, with huge banks of snow flanking the roads at its highest points.

There was no hanging about when the flag dropped and the peloton set off at a blistering place that made the formation of a break a very difficult task. The stage's parcours built up gradually, with the Colle dell'Agnello finally rearing up at around 40 kilometres into the day. Attacks were relentless but the elastic didn't snap until midway up the Agnello with a large group of 28 riders breaking clear of the peloton.

Among those out front were teammates of Nibali, Chaves and Valverde, including Michele Scarponi, Ruben Plaza and Rory Sutherland respectively. Unfortunately for Nippo-Vini Fantini, the leader of the mountains classification Damiano Cunego was not one of the 28 that broke clear. It wasn't long before the break began to splinter and the strongest few emerged at the front.

Ulissi and Scarponi moved clear on the steepest ramps, taking Katusha's Egor Sillin with them. Scarponi kicked again, distancing his companions to secure the honour of taking the Cima Coppi prize, just over five minutes ahead of the peloton. The main contenders were not concerned about the Italian, however, as they fought their own battle. Riding into the snow and the fog that shrouded the top of the climb, the battle for the overall title began to take shape.

After suffering earlier in the week, Chaves set the pace in the GC group and forced some early splits. Only his closest rival Valverde was able to stay with him initially, as the rest of the group were forced to chase him down. Another small attack from the diminutive Colombian was shut down by the maglia rosa Kruijswijk, who still looked comfortable thus far. After sticking with Chaves at first, Valverde began losing distance.

Valverde had lost some 40 seconds by the time that the Chaves hit the top of the Colle dell'Agnello.

Crisis for Kruijswijk

The stage was taking shape as they began the long descent but it was blown apart on a seemingly innocuous corner. The snow still banked high, Kruijswijk ploughed into it after overcooking it on a corner with 50 kilometres to go. His impact sent snow powder flying before Kruijswijk himself went spinning and his bike skidded down the road. He quickly dusted himself off and picked up his bike but it was damaged and it would take some time to get going again.

On his way again, Kruijswijk was still ahead of Valverde but he had lost precious time to Nibali and Chaves who were now scything their way town the fast and twisting descent. Even the Movistar rider would pass him, when Kruijswijk was forced to stop for a second time following his crash and the chase would now be critical. The Dutchman caught several groups along the way but nobody was willing or strong enough to help him in his efforts.

In the meantime, another general classification hopeful was seeing their ambitions go down the pan. Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha) suffered a heavy crash that send him skidding 20 metres into the grass on the side of the road. It looked very bad at first, but reports soon came in that the damage was a broken collarbone. Not serious compared to initial fears but enough to send him out of the race.

Up front, Scarponi had waved goodbye to escape companion Maxime Monfort (Lotto-Soudal) to help Nibali. They would see each other very soon though, when Scarponi paced Nibali, Chaves and others back to the Belgian with 10 kilometres to go. The veteran rider soon pulled off and opened the door for Nibali's first attack.

As Nibali surged forward, the same couldn't be said for Kruijsiwjk who was being dropped by white jersey Bob Jungels, who he had linked up with on the descent. The gap didn't immediately balloon out as Kruijswijk's resolve still held but it wouldn't be long before he was watching his pink jersey slip from his grasp.

Two more attacks from Nibali rid him of Chaves and allowed him to solo to a much-needed victory. Nibali is now just 40 seconds behind Chaves as they enter the final day in the mountains.

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