Stage 20

The road

At the start

The Marmolada, and three seconds

Three seconds. That is what separates Richard Carapaz from Jai Hindley with one mountain stage left, and Mikel Landa sits 1:05 behind them both. Today is the queen stage: 167 kilometres out of Belluno into the Dolomites, the Passo San Pellegrino, the Passo Pordoi as Cima Coppi for the first time in twenty years, and then the Fedaia to the Marmolada, its last kilometres in double figures.

How it was won

1. 1104 km to go

   Bahrain, not Ineos, take control

   The telling detail of the day: it is Landa's team doing the work on the false flat, not the pink jersey's. The break passes the intermediate six minutes clear with Ballerini taking maximum points and 104km still to race.

2. 244 km to go

   Covi alone over the Cima Coppi

   The break fragmented on the San Pellegrino and Covi drove home his advantage while the chasers bickered. He crests the roof of the Giro alone to take the Cima Coppi, ninety seconds up on eight chasers, with forty riders still in a peloton led by Poels.

3. 35 km to go

   The Marmolada bares its teeth

   The gentle first half of the Passo Fedaia ends here; the last 5.5km average into double figures. Ineos dispense with Bahrain and take it up through Tulett and Sivakov, and the group is gutted — Buchmann gone, Nibali gone, until only Carapaz, Hindley, Landa, Hirt and Carthy remain.

4. 44 km to go

   Hindley jumps

   Sivakov finishes his turn three and a half kilometres from the summit. Carapaz accelerates briefly and Hindley is straight into action — Landa dropped instantly, Carthy with him. Then Hindley finds Kämna waiting in front of him and the German sets to work.

5. 53 km to go

   The pink jersey cracks

   Just beyond the three-kilometre banner Carapaz loses the wheel. Hindley senses blood, thanks Kämna and rides away. Twenty seconds becomes thirty, and on the steepest slopes of the Marmolada the Ecuadorian is visibly suffering, passed first by Carthy and then even by Landa.

6. 6At the line

   Covi wins, Hindley takes pink

   Alessandro Covi soloes home for the stage, the fifth breakaway win of the final week — and it is entirely overshadowed. Jai Hindley crosses nearly ninety seconds up on Carapaz and takes the maglia rosa with a time trial to come and a lead he can defend.

The result