Chris Froome (Team Sky) will tomorrow become the first British winner of the Giro d’Italia after withstanding a flurry of attacks from his closest rival, Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb), on the final climb of the race. Mikel Nieve (Mitchelton-Scott) took the stage from the break on his birthday.
The 214km stage from Susa to Cervinia was the final mountain stage and brought the last three climbs of the Giro.
Dumoulin, 40s behind after Froome’s astonishing ride on stage 19, launched his first attack with 9km to go on the final climb.
Several more followed.
The race for the Maglia Rosa is ON!! #Giro101 pic.twitter.com/rPgS4o13xb
— Eurosport UK (@Eurosport_UK) May 26, 2018
The Dutchman of course had to try, but he was unable to create a lasting gap and at one point he himself was dropped. Eventually, he and Froome appeared to have ridden themselves to a stalemate and the race was to all intents and purposes decided.
Having started the Giro by crashing in the warm-up before the very first stage, Froome finishes by joining Eddy Merckx and Bernard Hinault as the only riders in history to have won three Grand Tours in a row.
"This #Giro101 has been brutal!" @chrisfroome reflects on a huge effort after all but securing overall victory pic.twitter.com/dg4l87EHUI
— Eurosport UK (@Eurosport_UK) May 26, 2018
Earlier in the day, Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) had struggled on the very first climb of the day and ultimately lost 45 minutes. This meant Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) moved up into third place behind Froome and Dumoulin.
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