Giro d'Italia: Nibali secures maglia rosa on stage 20

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Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) pulled off what seemed impossible just a few days ago and all but won the Giro d’Italia with a devastating performance on the final mountain stage.

The Italian started stage 20 to Sant'Anna di Vinadio 44 seconds down on maglia rosa Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEdge) but made up the deficit on the penultimate climb with a long-range attack after cracking all his major rivals, including the Colombian.

Rein Taaramae (Team Katusha) won the stage after surviving from the day’s early break, the Estonian somewhat making up for the fact that his team leader Ilnur Zakarin crashed out 24 hours previously.

The day, and ultimately the maglia rosa, belongs to Nibali, who came into the final mountain stages almost five minutes in arrears. He cut that to under a minute after winning stage 19 but on the penultimate stage before Turin’s flat encounter, he still had to crack Chaves, who had inherited pink after Steven Kruijswijk's (Team LottoNl-Jumbo) untimely stage 19 crash.

And Nibali pulled it off, first having his team set a near-relentless pace on the Colle della Lombarda, before attacking himself with two brutal accelerations. The first could only be matched by Chaves and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) but the second, while seated and with Chaves on his wheel, broke the Colombian’s brave resistance.

With constant time checks coming through the radio and with Tanel Kangert - who had been called back from the early break - for company Nibali slowly but surely opened a significant gap.

Chaves held on for as long as he could, and even had support from countryman Rigoberto Uran (Cannondale) but when the Orica rider failed to even follow that wheel, the writing was on the wall. A second group containing Rafa Majka and Bob Jungels caught Chaves just before the summit, giving a sliver of hope that Nibali could be curtailed on the descent but it wasn’t to be.

Spurred on by the tifosi as the race re-entered Italy, Nibali provided another memorable display. He crossed the line in sixth but Chaves was still losing ground and eventually came in nearly a minute and a half down and slipped to second, 52 seconds off Nibali’s new race lead.

Valverde, who has never quite been able to stamp any authority on this year’s Giro d’Italia at least demonstrated his skills in stage race management and limited his losses to Nibali. He briefly rode with Chaves and Uran before moving clear with the Cannondale rider before the summit of the Colle della Lombarda. The pair came in just 13 seconds adrift of Nibali – a fact that will tear at Orica’s hearts had their climber been able to only just hold them on the climb.

Steven Kruijswijk - who just two days ago looked almost unbreakable in the leader’s jersey - was unable to respond to Nibail’s surges. He looked comfortable when Tinkoff and then Astana, courtesy of Jakob Fuglsang and Michele Scarponi, set a furious tempo, but was found wanting when his rivals played out for the podium places.

He eventually dropped another place, to fourth, with Valverde moving up and onto the final podium position.

Just two days ago Nibali considered retiring from the race. With a day to go he is on course to win his second Giro, and his fourth Grand Tour.

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Taaramae’s stage glory

The headlines will understandably be Nibali’s but Rein Taaramae produced a storming performance to provide consolation for Katusha after Zakarin’s exit and to earn the biggest win of his own career.

The Estonian wasn’t actually part of the initial breakaway, which formed as the road started climbing from KM0 up the first-category ascent of the Col de Vars. Instead, he counter attacked and bridged over with Gazprom’s Aleksey Rybalkin on the upper reaches of the climb.

Stefan Denifl (IAM) took maximum KOM points at the top, shortly followed by Mikel Nieve (Team Sky), who had gained considerable ground in the mountains classification after his second place on stage 19. With the breakaway’s lead going out all the team, Damiano Cunego (Nippo Vini Fantini), struck in the peloton, saw his KOM lead under real threat.

After a descent, the break hit the first-category Col de la Bonette, and Nieve immediately took off. The Spaniard made his way up the monster 20-kilometre climb with poise and crested first to make sure he will be the winner of the mountains classification of this Giro.

Things split up behind Nieve but it came back together at the head of the race – despite some being dropped for good – on the ensuing 40km descent.

The road then pitched up once more for the first-cat Colle della Lombarda and there was a clear group of eight out front: Tanel Kangert (Astana), Nieve, Darwin Atapuma (BMC), Joe Dombrowski (Cannondale), Taaramae, Alexander Foliforov (Gazprom), Giovanni Visconti (Movistar), and Gianluca Brambilla (Etixx-QuickStep).

The attacks soon came and Dombrowksi, Atapuma and Visconti looked particularly strong and forged on together. Taaramae was distanced but over time came back with Kangert. It wasn’t long before he made his stage-winning move just over 3km from the summit of the Lombarda. While other attacks had been short-lived and quickly countered, the Katusha rider produced a searing extended acceleration that quickly produced a considerable gap.

There was a tussle between Atapuma, Dombrowski and Visconti behind, with the Colombian Atapuma emerging as the strongest, but Taaramae could not be pegged back on the descent of the Lombarda. He lost ground on the steep, short final climb to the line but had done enough to hold on and celebrate with a salute dedicated to Zakarin.

The second race on the road

As the breakaway stretched out their lead on the first and second climbs of the day, it became apparent that the GC battle would be a self-contained one – with stage honours not up for grabs.

After such drama yesterday, the first two thirds of stage 20 were relatively subdued. Alejandro Valverde, fourth overall at the start of the day, got himself in the break halfway up the Col de Vars but Astana were having none of it.

Halfway up the brutally long Cole de la Bonette it was Movistar who took the initiative, putting men on the front and upping the pace to being the thinking-out process. Things began to settle down but then Majka’s Tinkoff teammates took it up near the top.

The pace was high on the descent but all the GC men arrived at the foot of the pivotal Lombarda pass together and with teammates. Chaves’ teammate Amets Txurruka led for much of the climb keeping a comfortable pace but Astana weren’t going to put up with it for too long.

Jakob Fuglsang took it up about halfway up and it was his effort on the front that really ignited the GC race for the first time as riders in that group started to lose contact. It wasn’t long before he peeled off and handed over to Michele Scarponi – surely the standout domestique of this Giro – and the Italian really piled on the pressure, forming an elite group of eight: Scarponi, Majka, Kruijswijk, Valverde, Chaves, Nibali, Jungels.

Scarponi did a mammoth turn before getting signal from his leader 5km from the summit. On a hairpin Nibali surged and only Valverde and Chaves could follow.

Nibali drove it hard and soon dropped the pair, with Chaves looking in real trouble as he toiled to keep the wheel of Valverde. While Nibali linked up with former breakaway man Kangert, Chaves found an ally in compatriot Uran, who came up to him and led him up. The maglia rosa, however, could not follow for long, and it soon transpired that his Giro was under serious threat.

Nibali, needing 45 seconds, crested with 55 and made his way down the gnarly descent with characteristic guts and poise. Just a short, steep climb separated him from the line and though he seemed to slow up in the final couple of kilometres, Chaves was finding himself in more and more difficulty, and one of the most remarkable comebacks this sport has seen for some time – one of the cruelest from Chaves’ point of view – was complete.

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