Giro d'Italia: Pinot claims stage 20

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Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) capped a strong day to win the 20th stage of the Giro d'Italia, winning a sprint ahead of a small group of GC favourites. Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin) nabbed second on the day with Bahrain-Merida's Vincenzo Nibali taking third.

Nairo Quintana (Movistar) was also in the group and easily held on to his overall lead. Nibali and Pinot hopscotched over Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb) on the general classification leaderboard, but the Dutchman remains well-positioned with one stage to go. Dumoulin finished the day as fourth on the general classification, 53 seconds down. Not the gap for which any of Quintana, Pinot or Nibali had hoped ahead of Sunday's time trial finale.

The main selection of the day was made early as a high-powered group, which varied in size at times, got clear. As expected, the decisive break was made on the final climb of the race, the Foza. Quintana, Nibali and Pinot were able to get away from Dumoulin and joined Zakarin and Domenico Pozzovivo (AG2R La Mondiale) at the front. Dumoulin limited the damage over the final kilometres of the stage, however, coming home with a group of chasers just 15 seconds down. 

"Until three kilometres to go, I was just trying to make time. I didn't have the stage win in mind," Pinot said after taking his first career Giro d'Italia stage victory.

"The time gap is not big, the time trial tomorrow is pretty flat and it suits Dumoulin a lot. The most important thing will be to limit the damage."

How it unfolded

Stage 20 got off to a royal start with Sheikh Nasser of Bahrain on hand to wish his Bahrain-Merida team and Vincenzo Nibali luck on the final mountain stage.

It didn’t take long for the break group to form, with Dylan Teuns (BMC), Tom-Jelte Slagter (Cannondale-Drapac), Matthieu Ladagnous (FDJ), Dries Devenyns (Quick-Step Floors), Maxim Belkov (Katusha-Alpecin) and Filippo Pozzato (Willier Triestina) forming the main escape.

Dimension Data was not happy with the makeup of the group and gave furious chase, with the pace so high that the peloton split in two. Veteran Pozzato led the break over the first climb of the day, the fourth-category Mur di ca’ dell Poggio at kilometre 37, one minute ahead of the chasers.

Shortly thereafter Dimension Data gave up on the chase and the gap quickly jumped to over four minutes. Two riders in the pack decided they wanted to join the front group. Simon Andreetta (Bardiani CSF) and Gregor Mühlberger (Bora-Hansgrohe) jumped as the peloton slowed.

The two made good progress, coming to 1:40 of the lead group with the pack drifting back to nearly six minutes. The duo was unable to connect though and ultimately faded back to the peloton.

The lead group rolled through the intermediate sprint near the foot of the day’s first big climb. They started up the climb with a gap of seven and a half minutes, but as the gradient picked up, Pozzato dropped back and was soon distanced.

Bahrain-Merida moved to the front of the field as they hit the climb, with Movistar and CCC Sprandi Polkowice also up front. Then Katusha took to the lead. Two Katusha riders in fact pulled away slightly, but it seemed to have been not on purpose, as they soon looked around and fell back.

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That didn't stop the team from continuing to act though, as soon more Katusha riders were grouped at the front. Belkov dropped out of the lead group. The peloton was also getting smaller as the climb continued, and the gap decreased as well.

With 84 kilometres to go, and the Grappa summit not yet achieved, Movistar started paying the price for its hard work the last weeks and days. Only two helpers were left with maglia rosa Quintana. Dumoulin, Pinot and Nibali were all close. Katusha couldn't keep it up though and eventually had to fall back, lowering the pace somewhat. Ten Dam and Geschke moved up to Dumoulin, with only about 30 riders left in the group halfway up the climb.

After catching their breath, the remaining Katusha riders moved back to the front, and soon enough they made a move. Zakarin and Robert Kiserlovski pushed off, briefly opening a small gap, but the top favourites were all able to respond. The pressure whittled the group down to just 20 riders, however, with more – including Trek's Bauke Mollema and Orica-Scott's Adam Yates – dropping by the minute. Shortly thereafter it was down to a selection of eight, with Dumoulin at the tail end.

Up front, the break group was whittled down to only two riders, Teuns and Devenyns.

Teuns weakened as the summit approached, which allowed Devenyns to take the KOM points.

Jungels, Mollema and others gradually worked their way back into the pack as it neared the top of the climb, while Dario Cataldo (Astana) jumped from the group, which let him go.

The Quintana group, back up to 15 to 20 riders, kept up its relentless pace and crossed over the summit 2:43 behind the breakaway.

Teuns joined up with Devenyns again and the two Belgians flew down the descent. Cataldo caught and zipped past Ladagnous, with the latter soon absorbed into the Quintana group, which had again grown larger. With 50 kilometres left and the descent still not finished, the gap stood at 2:24.

The descent hit a flatter section and the pace went down, as if all wanted to catch their breath for a moment and see who was there. That was enough for three riders to dash off, with Davide Formolo (Cannondale) and two UAE riders, Simone Petilli and Jan Polanc trying their luck off the front of the GC group.

The gap from Teuns and Devenyns to the maglia rosa group was down to around the two-minute mark as they finally hit the short flat section between the penultimate and final climbs. The three riders who had broken away were caught again, as was Cataldo, on the run-in to the Giro's last categorised ascent.

The pink jersey group once again increased in size and allowed the gap to grow a bit, with the breakaway having an advantage of 2:40 with the 30 kilometres to go.

The two leaders soon hit the slopes of the Foza. The gradients quickly proved too much for Devenyns, who dropped back from Teuns with 26.5 kilometres left, and the group behind quickly cut the gap to under two minutes.

Nibali was the first to attack out of the pack but it looked more of a test than a serious effort. Most of the other top favourites went with him but Dumoulin showed weakness and lost contact. However, the big Dutchman continued calmly in his own rhythm and caught back up, and soon much of the group came back as well.

Zakarin delivered one unsuccessful attack and then another that stuck with AG2R's Domenico Pozzovivo. Nibali and Quintana let them go, focusing squarely on each other.

Then Quintana made his move, with Nibali hot on his heels. Once it became clear they wouldn't shake one another, the two worked together to pull away from Dumoulin and Pinot behind.

With just over 20 kilometres left, Teuns was caught by Zakarin and Pozzovivo. Nibali and Quintana were not far behind. Further back, but not too far, Dumoulin asked the others in the nine-man group to work together to close the gap.

With Quintana and Nibali within sight, Pinot jumped to join them. Dumoulin led the others in pursuit, only seconds behind, until Jungels took over the lead work and the chasers pulled even again with the Quintana group.

The regrouping was enough for Pozzovivo and Zakarin to add some precious seconds to their lead. But once again Nibali, Quintana and Pinot pulled away. Quintana tried again to get clear of his rivals alone, but was unable to open a serious gap. Pinot then took over pushing the pace. 10 seconds back, Dumoulin again led the chasers, looking around for help from his equally tired colleagues, with Jungels again the only one providing it.

Pozzovivo led the way over the top, with the Quintana group crossing over 14 seconds back and the Dumoulin group another 20 seconds down. The remaining 15 kilometres or so were all downhill. The three chasers caught the two leaders with just over 10 kilometres to go and the gap back to the Dumoulin group at 27 seconds.

Quintana took his turns in the lead but was insistent that the others take their turns as well, gesturing frequently. Pinot was the first to test his heels with Quintana jumping directly with him, and the others right behind.

Dumoulin worked hard to bring his group, which also included Mollema and Yates, back up. He and Jungels continued to do most of the pace-setting, with Mollema contributing too. But the gap grew again, from as low as eight seconds up to 20 seconds again as the kilometres ticked down.

The front group tested one another but stayed together. Quintana led the way under the final kilometre marker, and he and Pinot pulled slightly away for a few seconds before the others closed the gap. Then Pozzovivo jumped from behind to take a lead.

Pinot and Zakarin reacted immediately and surged past. Then Pinot pulled ahead in the final 150 meters and held on to take the stage, with Zakarin second and Nibali third. Race leader Quintana followed Pozzovivo across the line to take fifth.

The hard work of the chasing group behind had limited the losses to a manageable 15 seconds, however, leaving time trial specialist Dumoulin in an excellent place ahead of the stage 21 race against the clock.

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