Stage 19

The road

At the start

Mortirolo day, and 2:27 to find

David Arroyo has held the maglia rosa for five days and leads Ivan Basso by 2:27, Richie Porte by 2:44 and Cadel Evans by 3:09. Today is the stage this race has been pointing at: 195 kilometres from Brescia over the Aprica and the Trivigno and then the Mortirolo, with forty kilometres and an uncategorised drag back up to Aprica after the summit. Three sprinters went home rather than start it.

How it was won

1. 183 km to go

   Garzelli goes over the first Aprica

   The finish climb is crossed once early and Stefano Garzelli attacks over it as the break disintegrates behind him. Rain is falling, and the Trivigno and the Mortirolo are still to come.

2. 240 km to go

   Liquigas light the Mortirolo

   With more than forty kilometres left Basso and Nibali go together on the hardest climb in Italy. Arroyo, Evans, Sastre and Vinokourov come off the back one by one, and only Michele Scarponi can hold the wheel.

3. 333 km to go

   Three men over the top

   Basso, Nibali and Scarponi crest the Mortirolo alone. Four years ago Basso buried this race on the road to Aprica; he is doing it again, on the same mountain, in the rain, with his teammate riding him to it.

4. 421 km to go

   Arroyo's descent

   The maglia rosa answers the only way he can. Down a streaming, car-lined descent Arroyo passes Evans, then Sastre, then catches Vinokourov, and with twenty-one kilometres left he is only 46 seconds behind.

5. 513 km to go

   The chase stops cooperating

   Five men come together 12.5 kilometres out, 41 seconds down, with everything still to play for. Then the uncategorised drag to Aprica begins, nobody will lead it, and the gap starts growing and does not stop.

6. 6At the line

   Scarponi wins, Basso takes pink

   The trio arrive in Aprica more than three minutes clear and Scarponi wins a barely contested sprint from Basso. Basso pulls on the maglia rosa for the first time since 2006, and Nibali moves up to third.

The result