Stage 19

The road

At the start

The hardest stage of the race

Andrea Guardini beat the world champion in Vedelago and the general classification did not blink: Rodríguez by thirty seconds from Hesjedal, Basso at 1:22, Scarponi at 1:36. Today is the one everybody has been dreading — two hundred kilometres from Treviso into the Alps, five categorised climbs, nearly six thousand metres of climbing, the Passo Manghen, and Pampeago twice, the second time to the line.

How it was won

1. 1186 km to go

   Seventeen go up the road

   Five categorised climbs, a hundred and ninety-seven kilometres, and an early start. Seventeen riders take seven minutes by the first climb; the best placed of them is Sandy Casar, and the group has real climbers in Sella and Pirazzi.

2. 238 km to go

   Pampeago, first time

   First time up Pampeago and the break fractures: Casar, Rohregger and Pirazzi ride away from the rest. Behind, Liquigas are still wrapped around Basso as they have been for three weeks, and Kreuziger is quietly moving up through the bunch.

3. 326 km to go

   Kreuziger attacks on the Lavaze

   Twenty-five kilometres from the finish Roman Kreuziger attacks out of the peloton. Seeldraeyers gives him a few hundred metres of help and then Kreuziger goes on alone — twelve minutes down overall, chasing the only thing this Giro has left to give him.

4. 411 km to go

   A minute twenty, and closing

   Casar and Pirazzi are caught by Sella and Rohregger with eleven kilometres to go; the quartet has 1:20 on Kreuziger, who is now dragging Pauwels and Cataldo. Two minutes back, on the second ascent of Pampeago, Hesjedal is the strongest man on the mountain and everybody can see it.

5. 53 km to go

   Alone on the Alpe

   Kreuziger reaches the front and goes clear alone with four kilometres left. Behind, Scarponi attacks Hesjedal again and again to break him before Sunday, and every time the Canadian answers — then drops Basso, Scarponi, Rodríguez and Pozzovivo and sets off up the mountain after the stage.

6. 6At the line

   Kreuziger holds on by nineteen seconds

   Inside the last kilometre and a half Kreuziger looks like a man treading water and Hesjedal is eating into it with every pedal stroke. The line comes first: nineteen seconds, and the Astana rider gets his Giro back. The Canadian gets something better — proof, on the hardest stage of the race, that he is the strongest man in it.

The result