Stage 8

The road

At the start

Intxausti in pink, 55km alone

Adam Hansen's escape rearranged everything behind it. Beñat Intxausti leads by five seconds from Nibali and eight from Hesjedal; Paolini has dropped to fifteenth and Bradley Wiggins, who went down twice in the rain at Pescara, is outside the top twenty. Today there is nowhere to hide: fifty-five kilometres against the clock, rolling, then flat, then a wall to Saltara at thirteen per cent.

How it was won

1. 147 km to go

   Wiggins punctures early

   The Tour de France champion starts cautiously, then punctures and has to change bikes. At the first check he is further back than anybody expected — and only then does he begin to find the course.

2. 229 km to go

   Dowsett fastest at the check

   Best times have changed hands all afternoon until the British time trial champion goes through the twenty-six-kilometre check quicker than anyone has. Alex Dowsett rides the second half quicker still.

3. 35 km to go

   The wall to Saltara

   Twenty kilometres of flat, and then the road tips up for the last five with ramps touching thirteen per cent. It is the kind of ending that flatters a climber and punishes anyone already deep in the red.

4. 4At the line

   Dowsett by ten seconds, Nibali into pink

   1:16:27, and Dowsett has ten seconds on Wiggins and fourteen on Kangert. Beñat Intxausti fights the whole way, but this is not his discipline: four minutes lost and out of the top ten. Vincenzo Nibali takes the maglia rosa, and does not give it back.

The result