Nibali to take Overall
Italian Vincenzo Nibali was poised to win his second Giro d’Italia title after taking the overall lead in impressive fashion in the final mountain stage on Saturday.
The Astana rider, who started the day 44 seconds behind pink jersey holder Esteban Chaves of Colombia, attacked on the long ascent to the Col de la Lombarde, dropping his rivals one by one as Estonia Rein Taramae (Katusha) won the 20th stage after featuring in the day’s breakaway.
Sunday’s 21st and final stage to Turin is a flat ride that should not change the overall standings.
Nibali, who took sixth place in the stage, never looked back as Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), Chaves (Orica-GreenEDGE) and his compatriot Rigoberto Uran (Cannondale) hung on in the distance.
Chaves cracked and lost more than 1:30 to the Italian champion who should now repeat his 2013 title.
Nibali leads Chaves by 52 seconds, according to provisional results, with Valverde in third place, 1:17 off the pace.
Nibali was far from contention after a catastrophic showing in last Sunday’s uphill time trial and after a bad day in the mountains on Tuesday.
But his stage win on Friday added to overall leader Steven Kruijswijk’s crash put him back in the mix and, Nibali, one of six men with titles in all three grands tours, duly delivered on Saturday.
Stage Victory for Taarame
One day after Katyusha’s bad luck in the 2016 Giro d’Italia, with Ilnur Zakarin’s horrible crash and abandon, Rein Taaramäe wins the last mountain stage in Sant’Anna di Vinadio. A smart race of the Estonian rider and a perfect timed attack on the Colle de la Lombarda were the ingredients of his success. Darwin Atapuma (BMC Racing) finished second, 52 seconds behind. Joe Dombrowski (Cannondale) was third at 1.17. Vincenzo Nibali is the new maglia rosa.
– Yesterday was really a hard and sad day for us. The team worked for three weeks for the GC and I know how motivated Ilnur was. Everything ended in one sudden second. That’s why I was so motivated today to go in the break. The second reason was that I wanted to prove myself I can do a good race. I worked so hard in the beginning of the season and I hoped this work would pay off one day, – said Rein Taaramäe.
Rein Taaramaäe was already in the break of eleven riders skipping away on the Col de Vars. Later, on the Col de la Bonnette, Mikel Nieve (Team Sky) was allowed to take one minute, but he was reeled in over the top. On the last first-category climb, the Colle de la Lombarda, it was clear that only the six strongest riders of the eleven would decide on the stage win: Visconti (Team Movistar), Dombrowski, Atapuma, Taaramäe, Kangert (Team Astana) and Foliforov (Rusvelo). Dombrowski and Atapuma attacked, but later Taaramäe’s attack was the right one. Taaramäe reached the top with 32 seconds to the others. After a fast descent there were still 3.2 km uphill to Sant’Anna di Vinadio but nobody was able to come back.
– It was not easy at all to go in the break. Honestly, I suffered a lot in the beginning. I even dropped a few times from the break but everytime I was able to come back. I did everything to go on on a regular pace and that worked. I know these climbs very well since I did a lot altitude training camps here. From those camps I also learned that I become better the higher we go in the mountains. I found my moment to attack and I went away. I took my rhythm and was able to create a gap. The last two kilometers were really hard, I had strong cramps, but I went until the finish and won. This victory is very important for me but also for the team. I am super happy and I still can’t believe it. What a day! – concluded Rein Taaramae.
Meanwhile in the background, but on the same Colle de la Lombarda, Vincenzo Nibali pulled off what seemed impossible just a few days ago and all but won the Giro d’Italia. The Italian started stage 20 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. Vincenzo Nibali finished 6th in the stage, 6.44 behind Taaramäe but he reached the finish with 13 seconds boni to Valverde, 1.29 to Kruijswijk and 1.36 to Chaves. Nibali is the new maglia rosa. Without any incidents he will bet he overall winner of the 99th Giro d’Italia.
Tomorrow’s last stage between Cuneo and Torino is a completely flat stage.
Stage 20 Brief Results:
- Rein Taaramaee (Estonia / Katusha) 4:22:43″
- Darwin Atapuma (Colombia / BMC Racing) +52″
- Joe Dombrowski (U.S. / Cannondale) +1:17″
- Mikel Nieve (Spain / Team Sky) +4:12″
- Alexander Foliforov (Russia / Gazprom) +4:36″
- Vincenzo Nibali (Italy / Astana) +6:44″
- Alejandro Valverde (Spain / Movistar) +6:57″
- Rigoberto Uran (Colombia / Cannondale)
- Giovanni Visconti (Italy / Movistar) +7:47″
- Rafal Majka (Poland / Tinkoff) +8:06″
General Classification After Stage 20:
- Vincenzo Nibali (Italy / Astana) 82:44:31″
- Esteban Chaves (Colombia / Orica) +52″
- Alejandro Valverde (Spain / Movistar) +1:17″
- Steven Kruijswijk (Netherlands / LottoNL) +1:50″
- Rafal Majka (Poland / Tinkoff) +4:37″
- Bob Jungels (Luxembourg / Etixx – Quick-Step) +8:31″
- Rigoberto Uran (Colombia / Cannondale) +11:47″
- Andrey Amador (Costa Rica / Movistar) +13:21″
- Darwin Atapuma (Colombia / BMC Racing) +14:09″
- Kanstantsin Siutsou (Belarus / Dimension Data) +16:20″
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