Stage 14

The road

At the start

The Zoncolan, from the Sutrio side

The third weekend opens on the most feared climb in Italy. Bernal carries 45 seconds over Vlasov and 1:12 over Caruso to the foot of the Zoncolan, taken today from Sutrio — the flank the Giro has used only once, when the mountain was unveiled in 2003, and still 13.2 kilometres at nine per cent, the last three averaging thirteen and the final kilometre steeper again. Two hundred kilometres of Friuli come first.

How it was won

1. 159 km to go

   Seven minutes for the break

   Mollema and Bennett are the obvious names in the escape, each with a helper, and they take a cushion of seven minutes over the Monte Rest with the Zoncolan still to come.

2. 241 km to go

   Astana ambush the descent

   Sánchez, Vlasov, Izagirre and Tejada all attack in turn and Bernal is straight onto it. Panic spreads down the line; Evenepoel misses the move entirely and needs his whole team to drag him back.

3. 311 km to go

   Onto the Zoncolan

   The break hits the lower slopes six minutes up and Tratnik goes first, hunting a second Giro stage. Fortunato bides his time in a group containing Mollema and Bennett before kicking free to join him.

4. 44 km to go

   Ineos tear up the mountain

   With Tratnik and Fortunato 45 seconds clear, Ineos replace Astana on the front and line the favourites out. Evenepoel slips back, Formolo ships minutes, and Vlasov — second overall this morning — starts hunting for shelter.

5. 52 km to go

   Fortunato on the hardest kilometres

   With 2.3km to go, on the cruellest gradients of the most feared climb in Italy, a 25-year-old Grand Tour debutant who has never won a bike race accelerates away from Tratnik. Nobody comes back to him.

6. 61 km to go

   Yates splits the maglia rosa group

   Inside the last three kilometres Simon Yates, invisible for a fortnight, attacks and blows the group apart — Carthy, Caruso, Buchmann and Vlasov all gone. Bernal answers, then attacks Yates himself in the final few hundred metres.

7. 7At the line

   Monte Zoncolan

   Fortunato wins alone on the mountain that made his career. Bernal extends his lead; Vlasov drops from second to fourth, 1:57 down.

The result