Stage 19

The road

At the start

Sappada, where Roche took the Giro

Tim Merlier won in Padova and nothing above him moved: Pogačar leads Daniel Martínez by 7:42 and Geraint Thomas by 8:04. Today the race climbs into Friuli for the Passo Duron, the Sella Valcalda and the Cima Sappada — ambush country, the road where Stephen Roche took the maglia rosa off his own team leader in 1987. With a lead this size, nobody is expecting an ambush. The breakaway is expecting a chance.

How it was won

1. 181 km to go

   A 19-man break finally forms

   After a vicious, crash-strewn fight for the move, a nineteen-rider group at last gets clear and the peloton, content to let the mountains decide the GC, lets the gap balloon past ten minutes.

2. 231 km to go

   Vendrame attacks on the descent

   On a rain-soaked descent Andrea Vendrame slips away from the leaders, gambling that the disagreement behind will hand him the space he needs.

3. 37 km to go

   Steinhauser gives chase

   Steinhauser flies up the final Cima Sappada in pursuit, but Vendrame keeps finding more, extending his lead metre by metre in the wet.

4. 4At the line

   Vendrame solos into Sappada

   Vendrame rides home alone for Decathlon's second win of the race; far behind, Pogačar's group eases up to let a crashed Geraint Thomas rejoin without losing his podium spot.

The result