Stage 14

The road

At the start

A short, savage day in the Aosta

Polanc is still in pink but the real classification sits behind him: Roglič at 2:25, Zakarin at 2:56, Nibali at 4:09, Carapaz at 4:22. Eight riders left the race on the road to Lago Serrù, Tao Geoghegan Hart among them. Today is only 131 kilometres and it climbs 4,187 metres — the Verrogne, the Truc d'Arbre, then the Colle San Carlo, ten kilometres at close to ten per cent, twenty-five from Courmayeur.

How it was won

1. 131 km to go

   Nibali sets the San Carlo alight

   As Bahrain drill the base of the brutal Colle San Carlo — ten kilometres at nearly ten per cent — Nibali attacks and decimates the bunch, and Roglič is again stripped of every teammate.

2. 225 km to go

   Carapaz's virtuoso attack

   Three kilometres from the summit Richard Carapaz surges out of the saddle, hands in the drops, and simply rides away. Roglič, Nibali, Landa and López can only watch him crest the San Carlo thirty-five seconds clear — the move that will win the Giro.

3. 313 km to go

   Dancing down to the valley

   On the long hairpinned descent the chase group glances around and no one commits; Carapaz threads the technical bottom section perfectly and pulls his advantage back out to half a minute.

4. 46 km to go

   The favourites freeze

   On the draggy 8km haul to Courmayeur, Nibali, Roglič, Landa, López and Majka all refuse to lead; Yates seizes the lull to jump clear, but far ahead Carapaz is sailing toward a lead of nearly two minutes.

5. 5At the line

   Carapaz rides into pink

   In the shadow of Mont Blanc Carapaz sprints to a second stage win and, quietly clenching his fist on the rollers, learns he has taken the maglia rosa.

The result