Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) took emotional victory on hectic and breath-taking stage 19 of the Giro d’Italia. In a stage that saw the maglia rosa Steven Kruijswijk crash heavily, Nibali claimed valuable seconds on his rivals following a late attack on the last climb. Mikel Nieve (Team Sky) crossed the line in second place with Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEdge) in second.
After enduring a lot of criticism and pressure from the Italian press, the victory proved cathartic for Nibali who burst into tears soon after the line. Nibali has been the centre of attention at the Giro d’Italia and was close to being pulled from the race by his coach Paolo Slongo. However, the good news came to the Astana camp in that Nibali wasn’t ill and he could continue the race.
Astana set their stall out early, putting two riders into the break that went clear midway up the Colle dell’Agnello, Bakhtiyar Kozhatayev and Michele Scarponi. Kozhatayev was the first to drop back near the top of the ascent, burying himself for his leader. Nibali crested the top with Chaves and Kruijswijk and it looked like it would come down to a battle on the final ascent, until Kruijswijk misjudged a corner and ended up colliding with a bank of snow and somersaulting off his bike.
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With only neutral service for help and no teammates left, Kruijswijk lost more than a minute before he set off again. The race leader was forced to stop not once but twice more on the descent, the final time to take a new bike, losing him yet more valuable time and allowing the dropped Alejandro Valverde to pass him. Meanwhile Nibali and Chaves continued to push down the descent with the added assistance of Orica-GreenEdge rider Ruben Plaza and later Scarponi, who had dropped back from the break to help their teammates.
By the time they reached the final climb to Risoul, Kruijswijk’s position in the maglia rosa was hanging in the balance. Plaza led them onto the climb before Scarponi took it up, pushing the gap to the race leader out even further. Nibali made his first move with nine kilometres to go but that was swiftly negated. Undeterred, he tried again with just over five kilometres to go, and while it was brought back by Chaves again the Astana rider could sense he had his rival on the ropes. Just a few hundred metres he went again and, this time, the gap remained.
Chaves held Nibali at close quarters for around a kilometre but he eventually had to relent and focus on his own race and the battle for the race lead. After more than four hours of breath-taking racing, Nibali crossed the line raising his two arms to the sky in celebration some 53 seconds ahead of Chaves.
— Cyclingnews.com (@Cyclingnewsfeed) May 27, 2016
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