(Santuario Di Castelmonte) Dutchman Koen Bouwman won the 19e stage of the Tour of Italy, while Richard Carapaz maintained his lead at the top of the general classification with only two days of competition to go.
Bouwman (Jumbo – Visma) sprinted ahead of Mauro Schmid and Alessandro Tonelli on this penultimate day in the mountains and after a bizarre incident at the end of the race.
Schmid complained that Bouwman cut him off on the final curve, causing him to overrun Andrea Vendrame and Attila Valter, who were also trying to get their hands on the stage.
The 178 kilometers from Marano Lagunare included four categorized climbs, including one of second category towards the finish line, at Santuario di Castelmonte. The stage also briefly took cyclists through Slovenia.
A breakaway of 12 cyclists attacked quickly in the stage. The peloton allowed them to create a gap of almost 10 minutes. This gap collapsed on the ascent of the Kolovrat pass, category 1. On the descent, there were only five riders ahead.
Further attacks were launched behind by the overall leaders near the final ascent, but nothing held and the leaders all crossed the line at the same time, four minutes after Bouwman.
Carapaz, champion in 2019 and gold medalist at the Tokyo Olympics, is still three seconds ahead of Jai Hindley, second in 2020, and 1:05 over Mikel Landa.
The stage, however, brought its share of bad news for the leader, since his teammate at Ineos Grenadiers Richie Porte – his main support in the mountains – had to withdraw at the start of the stage due to a virus.
Everything could therefore be decided on the penultimate stage on Saturday. This 20e milestone has the highest difficulty rating of five stars and has three difficult climbs: Passo San Pellegrino, Passo Pordoi – the highest point of the race – Passo Fedaia, which leads to the foot of the Marmolada Glacier for conclude the 168 km course, which will start from Bellune.
The Giro will end on Sunday, with an individual time trial in the streets of Verona.
