Giro d'Italia: Chaves wins stage 19

Esteban Chaves resurrected both his career and Mitchelton-Scott's Giro d'Italia with a well-deserved victory on stage 19 of the race. The 29-year-old Colombian, who had been plagued by illness and a lack of form for the last year, attacked repeatedly on the final climb to San Martino di Castrozza before dropping his breakaway companions and sealing an emotional win ahead of Andrea Vendrame (Androni) and Amaro Antunes (CCC Team).

"It's unbelievable, I don't really have words for this," Chaves said following the stage. "A lot of work has been put in together, all my family, my team, my friends, everyone knows how hard we've worked but I never gave up. The climb today showed that, I attacked many, many times until I dropped everyone and life is like that as well. You have to keep attacking, attacking, attacking until the line because you never know how close you are until everyone arrives at the finish line. I'm really happy, I cannot describe in words especially in English. It's unbelievable, you're crying, everyone is crying, it's a beautiful day.

"Last couple of years I've had a lot of difficult moments but I have a beautiful family, friends and people by my side. We all worked together and this is a victory for everyone who supported me. Thank you very much everyone."

Chaves' last win came on stage 6 at the 2018 Giro d'Italia but that victory came on the cusp of a huge dip in form and confidence owing to a virus that was only diagnosed months later. He failed to race again in 2018 and spent the first part of this season fighting to rekindle the sort of form that had seen him compete for Grand Tours.

Although not quite at that level these days Chaves was the strongest rider in the 11-man break that escaped earlier in the stage. With a substantial lead over the Movistar-controlled peloton at the foot of the final ascent, all eyes were on Chaves. The climb to the finish may have been long but it lacked the steep terrain on which Chaves would typically thrive. However, a series off accelerations from the Colombian whittled down the opposition before he made his telling attack 2.7km from the line. This time there was no response – with Francois Bidard (AG2R La Mondiale) and Pieter Serry (Deceuninck-QuickStep) the last riders to offer any opposition.

By the time Chaves crossed the line, the maglia rosa group were still several kilometres from the summit but there was time for Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) to launch a stinging attack that sent several contenders into a panic. Mikel Landa was forced to chase for his leader Richard Carapaz, while Vincenzo Nibali followed. Primoz Roglic offered enough to suggest his overall challenge still had some life in it with a late attack once the road flattened but Lopez would gain around 45 seconds by the time Roglic, Carapaz and Nibali eventually crossed the line.

While the battle for the maglia rosa somewhat stalled, this was a day of unbridled emotion for Chaves. The popular climber has never been too far away from joy or disaster, his career a series of abrupt waves rather than a sea of calm, but on stage 19, over a year since his last triumph this was a day for him and his supporters to finally savour.

For the GC contenders Saturday's stage will be a far more grueling test than today. Carapaz leads Nibali by a healthy 1:54, with Roglic third and Landa fourth.

How it unfolded

With so many breaks having succeeded in this year's race and so few chances left before the finish on Sunday, there was no shortage of riders willing or able to make up the early assault on stage 19.

Marco Canola, Ivan Santaromita (both Nippo-Vini Fantini), Manuele Boaro (Astana), Marco Marcato (UAE Team Emirates), Oliver Le Gac (Groupama-FDJ), Bidard, Vendrame, Manuele Senni (Bardiani-CSF), Serry, Chaves and Amaro Antunes (CCC Team) quickly established a lead with no threats on GC and Movistar willing to let the escapees decide the outcome of the stage honours.

The break had a gap of 7:50 at the summit of the Passo San Boldo and they extended that advantage to 9:23 when they reached the fourth-category climb of Lamon. At the summit, Boaro put in a clever dig, and his knowledge of the local roads saw him establish a lead of 20 seconds on the descent. However, the break was in no mood to be generous and the veteran was brought back some 10 kilometres later.

At the foot of the final climb, Le Gac strung out the break but it was Canolo who attacked first and built up a lead of 18 seconds as Chaves calmly looked around to observe his rivals.

The climb itself never reached a high enough gradient for Chaves to exploit his true explosive nature as a climber but he slowly chipped away and when Bidard and Serry attacked with 9.5km to go the Mitchelton rider was fast on their heels. Those three WorldTour riders looked set to compete for the stage when they caught and dropped Canolo but with Serry content to set his own pace and Bidard marking Chaves the likes of Antunes and Vendrame were never out of contention.

Chaves reduced the group to four with another attack with 7.7km to go and he pushed again at 5.6km and 5.2km. Another strong attack followed with 4.4km to go but each acceleration was matched by Bidard and Serry. A cruel mechanical saw Vendrame lose contact but with 2.7km to go Chaves launched his strongest attack yet.

Bidard held the gap at just a few metres initially but even he had to relent eventually and when the Frenchman sat down in the saddle and Chaves looked back he could see that the gap was only widening.

Further down the climb Lopez took it upon himself to at least remind everyone that there was still a race for the maglia rosa but that battle will surely develop over the final two days.

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