PIANCAVALLO: Colombia’s Nairo Quintana took possession of the pink jersey from Dutch rival Tom Dumoulin with two stages to go in the Giro d’Italia on Friday, setting up a close finale in Milan on Sunday.
Dumoulin couldn’t keep up with his main rivals in the final ascent of an eventful 19th stage won by Spain’s Mikel Landa.
Quintana, the 2014 champion who rides for Movistar, finished nearly eight and a half minutes behind Team Sky rider Landa — who finally tasted victory after two second-place finishes and one third-place result — following a 191km ride from San Candido to the summit finish at Piancavallo.
His Movistar team attacked 135km from the finish when Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) was at the back of the peloton, possibly because nature had called and the Dutchman could not follow in the final uphill finish of the three-week race.
Dumoulin, who has held the race lead since winning stage 10, finished over a minute in arrears, losing his 31sec overnight lead to drop to second overall at 38seconds.
Italy’s two-time champion Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) is now third, at 43 seconds.
Frenchman Thibaut Pinot was the overall contender who gained most after he dropped Quintana and Nibali with about six kilometres left and the FDJ rider is at 53 seconds.
The penultimate stage on Saturday is the last mountainous leg, a 190km route from Pordenone to Asiago featuring two first-category climbs that could favour Nibali, Quintana and Pinot, while Sunday’s final time trial, a 29.3-km effort from Monza to Milan, is expected to go Dumoulin’s way.
Published in Dawn, May 27th, 2017