Stage 19

The road

How it was won

1. 1128 km to go

   A long blue line

   Eight are clear — Chaves, Visconti, Kiryienka among them — and Astana keep them on a four-minute leash all the way up the Aosta valley, with Contador and Tinkoff riding in their wheels.

2. 246 km to go

   Visconti alone on the Saint-Panteleon

   From the foot of the second-last climb Giovanni Visconti rides away from the break and crests it two minutes clear, briefly the king of the mountains.

3. 321 km to go

   An operatic farewell

   On the shallow valley road to Cervinia the Astana front line reels him in. Visconti, last seen by the cameras, gives a great theatrical wave before he disappears back into the bunch.

4. 47 km to go

   Aru answers three bad weeks

   Hesjedal has been driving the climb where he took the 2012 Giro back, and with seven kilometres left Fabio Aru powers out of the group. A kilometre later he goes again, sheds the Canadian, and rides up towards the Matterhorn with a race's worth of frustration behind him.

5. 5At the line

   Cervinia restores Aru

   He wins alone by more than a minute. Contador, riding well within himself, comes in 1:18 down in a group of four and still leads by 4:37 — but the Giro has a shape again.

The result