Let's get the niceties of the stage result out of the way first: Rein Taaramae took the victory. He got into the early break before shedding his fellow contenders and rode in alone, 52sec ahead of Colombian John Atapuma and 1min 17sec up on American Joe Dombrowski. A day for so nears yet so fars for the Colombians.
And it was the so near yet so far of Esteban Chaves that stood out the most. Stage 20 was the final mountain stage of this Giro and the Colle Della Lombarda its final major climb and for Chaves it proved a day too many; a ridge too far.
For Nibali the timing of his return to form couldn't have been better played as he finished off what will certainly go down as one of the great comebacks in recent grand tour history. The pace was steady throughout the early parts of the stage, a likely reaction to how brutal the racing had been the day before, but Nibali clearly felt confident in what he could do late by comparison to his fading rivals. And so it was on that final long climb that he turned on the jets and rode away once again. Not to the stage win this time but into the pink jersey once and for all. And once more he had a man in the break up ahead who could wait for him and help set the pace for a while before he took over himself.
Kruijswijk, riding on with a broken rib was no longer a threat and soon dropped back and off the final podium placings, and Valverde fought valiantly to contain Nibali's lead, pulling it back to just 13sec on the short final ramp up to the finish. But neither of them really mattered much to the Italian anymore so long as they were somewhere behind him. Second overall coming into the stage it was Chaves he had to break. Sadly yesterday proved that Chaves was nearing the limits of his form and so it proved that he couldn't recover in time for today. He was unable to react when Nibali went and came over the finishing line 1min 23sec behind Nibali, and 7sec behind the banged up Kruijswijk.
It was a splendid ride by Nibali. A fine comeback story that had you enjoying its achievement even if it was by the pre-race favourite at the hands of the likable Esteban Chaves and Steven Kruijswijk. The Dutch will certainly felt hard done by in the final days of the most recent two Grand Tours, but make no mistake about it, a wave of talent is coming out of that nation that suggests they may not have to wait too long for someone to finally see it through.
The result of Nibali's effort, of course, brought out skeptics and cynics. The former understandable, the later typical. And yet, while this was an epic comeback, it was by no means a Floyd Landis style turnaround from the 2006 Tour. It was far more believable than that when you dig deeper under the surface of the simple timing sheets. Enough to allay the fears of those skeptical, though nothing will change the hearts of the conspiratorial or cynical.
Thought that won't matter much to Nibali and nor should it those who watched what was a couple of brilliant stages to end a very enjoyable Giro. Nibali will ride into Turin tomorrow to win his second Giro and 4th Grand Tour and go onto the record books as the winner whom beforehand we all expected to win. The only thing being the manor in which he won...having to reel it in after a handful of others came so close to winning it themselves while he struggled before soaring.
General classification after stage 20:
| 1. Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) 2. Esteban Chaves (Orica GreenEdge) 3. Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) 4. Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo) 5. Rafal Majka (Tinkoff) 6. Bob Jungels (Etixx - Quick Step) |
in 82h 44' 31"
@ 52" @ 1' 17" @ 1' 50" @ 4' 37" @ 8' 31" |
