Quintana grabs pink but will need more time

By the time I tuned into the Giro d'Italia today - and by tune in I mean logged onto Twitter, as well as a live blog - I had missed the ambush. It had been a busy morning for me and while I knew there was a summit finish, I kind of overlooked anything that might happen before. In a way, I felt ambushed.

By all accounts the pink jersey of Tom Dumoulin got distanced on a descent and the teams of Nibali and Quintana put the hammer down. It all came to nothing in the end as a frantic chase ensued that brought it all back together. Even the days initial break was no more. What it did serve to do was soften up the legs of Big Tom who began to lose contact the moment they hit the final climb to Piancavallo.

Doing as he does best though, Dumoulin didn't panic. He settled into his rhythm and set about limiting his loses. The GC will tell you he had a 31 second advantage over Quintana to play with. In reality, with the final day time-trial still to come, that advantage was more like 2 minutes. By the end of the day Dumoulin would lose 1 minute 9 seconds, and his pink jersey, to Quintana.

Up ahead of him the group of rivals vying for Dumoulin's blood, stuck together. For the most part, that is. Thibaut Pinot was an exception. The Frenchman has been very aggressive lately and it's been to his benefit. He attached again and while he only took a handful of seconds today, he has closed to within a minute of Quintana overall. Nibali lost a couple of seconds but he himself is only 43 seconds in arrears.

Further up the road a break had formed containing stage hunters no longer linked to the general classification. The usual names were present: Pierre Rolland and Mikel Landa. Has there been a break through this whole race that hasn't included one of them? It doesn't feel like it. The past two days had seen some very deserving stage winners. Rolland was finally rewarded for his many efforts with a win on stage 17, giving Cannondale-Drapac their second World Tour win in 10 days after Andrew Talansky won at the Tour of California. This after the team had gone over two years without a win at the elite level. The following day Tejay Van Garderen restored some much needed confidence with a stage win of his own. And so today another man joined them: Landa. The Sky man seen his GC ambitions end with that crash on the road to Blockhaus on stage 9 and turned to targeting stage wins. He has had two second place finishes already, having led out two, two-up sprints, losing both. Today though he went solo, saving the worry of a sprint and instead enjoying the moment with his arms in the air.

Tomorrow marks the final day in the mountains. It's not quite a summit finish, but it may as well be. For Quintana, Nibali and Pinot, they're going to need to hurt Dumoulin again. The Colombian needs another minute, but at the very least he needs to soften Dumoulin's legs so come the time-trial the Dutchman isn't quite so potent. That said he might also need to worry about Pinot and Nibali. Both can time-trial better. They may shed Dumoulin, but if either can put a little extra time into Quintana tomorrow, they could yet leapfrog him in the time-trial to win the Giro on the final day.

What for a while was looking like a runaway win for Dumoulin on the day he took his impromptu bathroom break, before becoming a two man race, now appears almost to be a four way fight for the top prize in Milan. That will make for a riveting weekend of viewing. I can only hope I find a way to actually watch it and not rely completely on social media!

General classification after stage 19

1. Nairo Quintana (Movistar) in 85h2'40"

2. Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb) @ 38"

3. Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) @ 43"

4. Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) @ 53"

5. Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin) @ 1'21"

6. Domenico Pozzovivo (AG2R La Mondiale) @ 1'30"