Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) capped a strong day to win the 20th stage of the Giro d'Italia, winning a sprint ahead of a small group of GC favourites. Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin) nabbed second on the day with Bahrain-Merida's Vincenzo Nibali taking third.
Nairo Quintana (Movistar) was also in the group and easily held on to his overall lead. Nibali and Pinot hopscotched over Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb) on the general classification leaderboard, but the Dutchman remains well-positioned with one stage to go. Dumoulin finished the day as fourth on the general classification, 53 seconds down. Not the gap for which any of Quintana, Pinot or Nibali had hoped ahead of Sunday's time trial finale.
The main selection of the day was made early as a high-powered group, which varied in size at times, got clear. As expected, the decisive break was made on the final climb of the race, the Foza. Quintana, Nibali and Pinot were able to get away from Dumoulin and joined Zakarin and Domenico Pozzovivo (AG2R La Mondiale) at the front. Dumoulin limited the damage over the final kilometres of the stage, however, coming home with a group of chasers just 15 seconds down.
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"Until three kilometres to go, I was just trying to make time. I didn't have the stage win in mind," Pinot said after taking his first career Giro d'Italia stage victory.
"The time gap is not big, the time trial tomorrow is pretty flat and it suits Dumoulin a lot. The most important thing will be to limit the damage."
How it unfolded
Stage 20 got off to a royal start with Sheikh Nasser of Bahrain on hand to wish his Bahrain-Merida team and Vincenzo Nibali luck on the final mountain stage.
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