Dutchman Koen Bouwman won the 19th round of the Tour of Italy on Friday. Richard Carapaz maintained his lead at the top of the overall classification two days from graduation.
Bouwman (Jumbo-Visma) ran ahead of Mauro Schmid and Alessandro Tonelli on this final day in the mountains and after a bizarre incident at the end of the race.
Schmid complained that Bouwman cut him off the final curve, causing him to overtake Andrea Vendrame and Attila Valter, who were also trying to get their hands on the stage.
The 178 kilometers from Marano Lagunare includes four climbing categories, including one in the second category towards the finish line, at the Santuario di Castelmonte. The stage also brought briefly the cyclists to Slovenia.
A 12-rider breakaway quickly attacked. The peloton allows them to create a gap of about 10 minutes. This gap falls on the ascent of the Kolovrat pass, category 1. On the descent, there are only five riders ahead.
Further attacks were launched behind the general leaders near the last ascent, but nothing was stopped and the leaders simultaneously crossed the line, four minutes after Bouwman.
Carapaz, champion in 2019 and gold medalist at the Tokyo Olympics, is still three seconds ahead of Jai Hindley, 2nd in 2020, and 1:05 ahead of Mikel Landa.
However, the stage brought part of the bad news for the leader, as his teammate inside the Ineos Grenadiers Richie Porte, his main support in the mountains, had to withdraw at the start of the stage due to a virus.
Everything can be decided at the penultimate stage, on Saturday. This 20th milestone gets the highest level of difficulty, five stars, and has three difficult climbs: the Passo San Pellegrino, the Passo Pordoi – the highest point of the race – the Passo Fedaia, leading to foot of the Marmolada glacier to finish the 168 km route, which starts at Belluno.
The Giro will end on Sunday with an individual time test on the streets of Verona.
Source: Radio-Canada
