Chaves rides into pink as Kruijswijk crashes in Giro d’Italia

Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) took emotional victory on hectic and breath-taking stage 19 of the Giro d’Italia. In a day 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.

Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) put in an attacking display on the mountainous stage 19 of the Giro d’Italia to take the stage win and move up to second overall.

Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEdge) moved into the maglia rosa after finishing 50 seconds behind the Italian and over four minutes ahead of Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo) on the summit finish to Risoul, who suffered a miserable day at the Giro d’Italia and slipped to third, 1-05 behind Chaves.

Nibali now sits 44 seconds off Chaves ahead of the final mountain stage and 1-04 ahead of Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) in fourth after he finish 2-14 down on the stage.

The action really kicked off on the stage on the Cima Coppi climb, the highest point in this year’s Giro, on the slopes of the Colle Dell’Agnello.

A 28-man break had finally got away after around 70km of riding, and it was Nibali’s teammate Michele Scarponi who took the prize after cresting the summit first.

But Scarponi’s presence up front would be a help for his compatriot later on, with Chaves the first to attack towards the summit and only Kruijswijk and Nibali able to follow as Valverde and Rafal Majka (Tinkoff) suffered.

But the gaps weren’t huge and the GC contenders were more or less together as they began the descent down the French side of the climb.

Kruijswijk though, may look back and say that was the moment he lost the Giro d’Italia. The race leader was unable to control his bike on a corner on the snowy descent and went flying into the snow drift on the right hand side of the road.

Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha) was another GC contender to suffer on the descent, going off the edge of the road and suffering a collarbone injury, abandoning the race.

With damage to his bike and his team car some way back down the climb, there was nothing the Dutchman could do but try and catch Nibali and Chaves without all his gears available and the pair over 30 seconds ahead.

Eventually he was able to get a bike change but looked to have some job on his hands to catch his rivals.

As the Nibali group hit the final climb, Scarponi and the rest of the reaming break were caught and he was able to put some work in to help his team leader get away on the final climb.

Maxime Monfort (Lotto-Soudal) who was the only rider left out front from the break on his own, was then caught and passed by Chaves and Nibali as they got away from Valverde, Majka and Rigoberto Uran (Cannondale).

The leaders then quickly went to a minute ahead of that group, with Sky’s Mikel Nieve latching on in the hunt for a second stage win. Kruijswijk, who was without and teammates, looked to be suffering on the category one climb to Risoul and began leaking time and his lead to the pair up front.

With 5km to go on the 12km finishing climb, Colombian Chaves began to fade and 2013 Giro winner attacked. That increase in pace saw Valverde move two minutes back and Kruijswijk to almost four minutes.

Stage 20

Chaves now leads the overall by 40 seconds over Nibali, with Kruijswijk in third at 1:05 behind. Valverde slipped one spot to fourth at 1:48. With the abondonment of Zakarin, Majka now sits fifth overall, but is nearly four minutes down.

There will be fireworks galore Saturday on the final day to decide the general classification of this year’s Giro d’Italia. The penultimate stage from Guillestre to Sant’Anna di Vinadio looks like a shark’s mouth with three massive climbs packed into 134 kilometres.

The short stage features a remarkable 4,100m in elevation gain, with a sequence of four climbs and three descents — with no flat stretches in between. The route climbs up Col de Vars (19km), Col de la Bonette (22km), Col de la Lombarde (20km) and the final 2.3km leading to the Sant’Anna Sanctuary. The roadway only narrows along the technical descent from Col de la Lombarde, all the way up to the last 2.3 kilometres.

Giro d’Italia 2016 – stage 19 results (Pinerolo – Risoul):

1 Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) 4:19:54
2 Mikel Nieve (Sky) +51”
3 Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEdge) +53”
4 Diego Ulissi (Lampre – Merida) +01’02”
5 Rafal Majka (Tinkoff) +02’14
6 Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) ,,
7 Rigoberto Uran (Cannondale) ,,
8 Georg Preidler (Giant-Alpecin) +02’43”
9 Nicolas Roche (Sky) +02’51”
10 Hubert Dupont (AG2R) ,,

General classification after stage 19:

1 Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEdge) 78:14:20
2 Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) +40”
3 Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNl-Jumbo) +01’05”
4 Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) +01’48”
5 Rafal Majka (Tinkoff) +03’59”
6 Bob Jungels (Etixx – Quick-Step) +07’53
7 Andrey Amador (Movistar) +09’34”
8 Rigoberto Uran (Cannondale) +12’18”
9 Kanstantsin Siutsou (Dimension Data) +13’19”
10 Domenico Pozzovivo (AG2R) +14’11”