Stage 19

The road

At the start

The queen stage, and Valgren is gone

Jonas Vingegaard has won four summit finishes and leads Felix Gall by 4:03 and Thymen Arensman by 4:27, and says openly that he now wants to ride for Sepp Kuss and Davide Piganzoli. Today is the queen stage: 151 kilometres through the Dolomites, close to 5,000 metres of climbing and the Cima Coppi over the Passo Giau at 2,233 metres. Wednesday's winner Michael Valgren does not start.

How it was won

1. 181 km to go

   Ciccone and Rubio strike

   On the steep slopes toward Coi, 81km from the line, Rubio and Ciccone attack, the Italian raking in KOM points as the Visma-led bunch keeps them in striking range.

2. 235 km to go

   Explosion on the Passo Giau

   The holding pattern is torn apart on the monstrous Passo Giau, 9.9km at 9.3% topping out above 2,200m — only the very best climbers survive front and back.

3. 315 km to go

   Ciccone's daredevil descent

   Furious at losing bonus points, Ciccone turns his anger into a fearless descent off the Falzarego and flashes a minute clear of the chasers with 15km to go.

4. 43 km to go

   Kuss flies across

   On the brutal final climb Kuss bridges the gap, cutting Ciccone's lead to eighteen seconds 2.6km from the top with nobody able to match his uphill speed.

5. 52 km to go

   Kuss catches and drops Ciccone

   Four hundred metres later Kuss reaches Ciccone and immediately rides away, the strongest man from the break by a distance.

6. 6At the line

   Kuss completes the set

   Sepp Kuss soloes to the queen-stage win to complete his collection of Grand Tour stage victories; behind, Gall leads Vingegaard home as Hindley climbs onto the podium.

The result