Signore, signori, benvenuti a Marostica! We are back with the final week of the 2020 Giro d'Italia - the Week of the Mountains! No less than 5 mountain stages - including four mountain-top finishes - await us in the next seven days! Thereof, today's stage is the shortest - but not an easy one, as only stages 16 and 19 contain more climbing!
Today's stage will start in Marostica, in the province of Vicenza. This town with just a little more than 10,000 inhabitants is famous mainly for its Human Chess event, taking place every two years, and lasting for three days. The legend says that back in 1454, two noblemen played a chess game, with the winner getting the hand of the local lord's daughter. The Human Chess event is played in remembrance of their chess game.
Will we see some kind of chess games as well on the roads today? Mountain stages definitely require a good strategy. One strategy could be the fight for the Maglia Azzurra, the KoM jersey. 42 points is the maximum a rider could gain today - exactly as many as current leader Roman totals.
The first climb will lead the riders up to Valico della Fricca, the pass leading us into Trentino, as we're heading to the Alps. On top - after 62.3km - we'll have a category 2 KoM sprint, before tackling the long descent down to Trento, the province's capital. The riders will arrive there after 84.9km, where we'll have today's intermediate sprint. Three more uncategorized hills are next, before the riders reach Preore.
From there, they will tackle the third 1st category climb of this Giro, up to Passo Daone, 1291 meters above sea level. However, this mountaintop, reached after 135.2km, is not the end of the stage. Another downhill to Spiazzo, a false flat up to Pinzolo - and then the fun starts!
What will be left then is a roughly 15km long climb, with an elevation gain of about 1,000 meters, up to Madonna di Campiglio. Hosting a well-known ski resort, this village - or rather its 750 residents - mainly live from tourism. It's also a popular base for hikes in the Brenta Dolomites.
After 166 kilometers of cycling, the riders won't want to ski or bike after accomplishing their work - but at least one of them will celebrate tonight. The bookies obviously see Taaramäe, Kritskiy and Spilak in the pole position for the stage win. Reis, Amador and Haig are great climbers as well, and we can't rule out Barguil, Shikai, Schleck and Arndt either. Especially those who lost a lot of time yesterday might try a gutsy mid- to long-range attack - let's see how it plays out.
Will Malecki still be among the winners in a few hours? His advantage has melted down to 7 minutes after yesterday's brutal time trial - but the tasks aren't getting any easier for him! And then, there surely will be a fight for the Maglia Azzurra - let's hope for a lot of action!
The weather isn't great today - and for once we have some wind coming into play! It will be tailwind for most of the stage, as it's blowing in north-western direction - but we'll have crosswinds for quite a long part of the final climb, which could be a decisive factor for those who don't have the best legs today!
But we'll see that in a few hours - for now, let's already tackle the first obstacles!
Before that, it's flat - but we're still seeing some good climbers attacking: Velits, Kastrantas, Iturria and Budenieks, who apparently wants to return to KoM hunting after a long break.
Isostar's best rider in GC, Kozhatayev, leads the next wave, ahead of Carboni and Bernal. Meaning that numbers 2 and 3 of the U25 standings are in the offense!
And number 4 follows, as Wirtgen tries to join those ahead.
But it's far from over, as we have seven more riders trying to break free: Costagli, cycleYorkshire's GC contender Kennaugh, Carapaz, Majka, Maglia Azzurra Roman, Aegon captain Valls, and Anacona. That's some climbing power!
And the peloton seems to be fine with all these great climbers up front! Castrillo is setting an easy pace, ahead of O'Shea and Vorobev. Let's see if that's all now, or if some riders still want to attack!
It doesn't seem so, and therefore we soon have one big group of 15 riders up front! All of them have at least decent uphill skills, but some are still one level above:
Carapaz is definitely the strongest pure climber, but the hills - whereof we have some between the two bigger mountains - aren't his best friends. Anacona is a more balanced rider, while Velits has lost a lot of his physical strength, and Costagli might suffer on the long rather flat part ahead of the first climb.
Valls comes next in the list, and he's a pretty well balanced rider, too, just like Roman, Iturria and Carboni. Kozhatayev belongs to that category as well, but in addition, he's strong on the flat, just like Kennaugh and Wirtgen.
Majka and Bernal might lack a bit of punch cmopared to the others, while Kastrantas and Budenieks are the weakest climbers in the group.
GC-wise, Valls and Kennaugh are the biggest threats, being currently 17th and 18th, almost 13 minutes down, however. And as we said before, Budenieks, Bernal and Wirtgen are 2nd, 3rd and 4th in the U25 standings - with a huge deficit on Malecki, though.
If that was a bit too much of information, here's an overview:
Valls
Velits
Carboni
Kozhatayev
Roman
Kennaugh
Wirtgen
Majka
Budenieks
Kastrantas
Iturria
Anacona
Bernal
Costagli
Carapaz
The current lead over the pack is 3'25".
The teammates of the top GC contenders are setting the pace in the peloton, as we have Van Winden, O'Shea, Yatsevich, Granjel Cabrera, Castrillo, Dillier and Rosskopf up front. The gap has grown by another minute and is 4'29" now.
The leaders are approaching the first climb, as the lead has reached its maximum extent so far, being just under five minutes. Valls, Velits and Costagli haven't been doing any work so far. While the former two have an excuse named Carboni for doing so, the latter simply can't contribute anything useful on the flatter roads.
We're almost at the foot of the first climb, so let's take a quick look at its profile. With gradients averaging at just 5%, it isn't a tough one, but it's still more than 12 kilomters long. The hardest slopes are in the first half - let's see if any of the groups will split on these sections.
The climb is on for the leaders, who are led by Kennaugh. Down in the valley, we can spot the car ahead of the peloton, but there's quite some distance in between these two groups.
Now they start the ascent as well, with Rosskopf setting a good pace. The deficit has decreased by about half a minute, it's 4'29" now.
The front group collaborates well, and it's only with one kilometer to go that Roman attacks - clearly going for the KoM points. 10 are available for the first on top!
Majka, Anacona, Budenieks, Kozhatayev and Kastrantas try to follow, while the others don't seem to be very interested.
The Serb is capable of holding on to his lead, taking maximum points at La Fricca!
Roman therefore extends his lead over Vakoc to 18 points, while Budenieks is now 3rd, 20 points down. 32 points are still on offer, though!
We know these images by now... It's going to be another very long day for Boudat, Dillier and Major - maybe the last one?
While Rosskopf, who was leading almost on the whole climb, had brought down the gap just below four minutes, the KoM sprint has made it jump up again to 4'40" as Granjel Cabrera leads the peloton over the line.
But even though the pace definitely wasn't too high, three more riders had to let go on this first mountain: Campenaerts, Vanbilsen and Kolev.
As always on the last stages, nobody is interested in the points. Still, they have to be assigned:
Turek leads the pack over the line in Trento 4'09" later, meaning that the peloton was quite a lot faster on the descent than the leaders. Now it's the hilly section awaiting them, with three uncategorized ascents.
Malecki is still safe in the bunch, having lots of teammates around him. They won't be able to get rid of him like this...
However, uncategorized doesn't necessarily mean easy! On the first hill, there are sections of up to 10%, right where the breakaway is now!
Meanwhile, Pruus has taken control behind, and he has just powered up this hill! The deficit is down to 3'45" - and the hill isn't done yet!
This high pace up front causes a lot more damage on this hill than on the long climb before! For the moment, it's just the usual suspects being dropped, though, including pretty much the whole Lierse SK team, with only Covi still hanging on at the very end of the pack.
The first of these three hills is done, with the second about to start. The gap has shrunk further, to 3'21".
This one is shorter and less steep, however, with maximum slopes just around 6%. Still, the pack is getting closer and closer, 3'11" remaining.
But... that's Reis! What is the Portuguese (6th GC!) doing behind the pack? We didn't get any mention of a puncture or another technical problem - apparently, he just completely messed up his positioning going into this hilly section! With all the riders dropping off now, it won't be easy to re-join the front!
Catching up definitely won't be easy, as Brown and Pruus are setting a terrific pace! In no time, they have gained 30" on the leaders!
All teammates bar Van Winden - who is much further down the road - have gathered around Reis to help him re-join! Let's see if that works out - it would be a huge bummer if not!
Sivakov then leads the peloton over the top of the last hill, the shortest and "flattest" of all. The breakaway starts the next climb in 3 kilometers.
Reis hasn't been able to catch up yet - he'd rather do so soon!
But of all his teammates, only Teklehaimanot is left! And Reis himself seems to be completely empty! What has happened? We simply don't know and hope to get an explanation after the stage!
Passo Daone is our next obstacle - and it's a tough one! Almost 10 kilometers with more than 8% average gradients - that's one to separate the men from the boys already!
Bernal leads the breakaway into this ascent - and it's steep already on the first meters! Let's see if they'll still be together when they arrive on top - or will they even be caught before?
This is not very likely, as the gap has increased again, now being 3'14". Vangstad and Quintana are leading the pack - is Taaramäe planning an early attack? Or do they just want to shake off as many opponents (or their domestiques) as possible?
None of this, as the pace has slowed down a lot! The escapees have extended the gap by a full minute halfway up the climb!
Well, we also have to consider the climbing strength gathered in this group - there aren't many domestiques left in the pack who could match this speed, so this isn't too surprising, either.
Budenieks is the first who has to let go of the breakaway - which isn't fully unexpected, either. However, this seriously endangers his 2nd place in the U25 standings, given that the two riders right behind him in this ranking are still up front!
Carboni, who has done a lot of work for his teammates, joins the Latvian - let's see how long it takes for the pack to catch them.
Meanwhile, Reis is still fighting his way back, passing rider after rider. However, he has only just reached group Demare, meaning it's a long way to go! He has to hope that the pace further slows down, and that he'll maybe be able to catch up on the descent and the following false flat!
Roman definitely doesn't have the best position as Carapaz attacks with 2 kilomters to go! Can the Serb pass the group and still take the points on top?
Anacona, Majka and Iturria immediately jump to Carapaz' wheel - let's see if he can pull it through all the way!
Still one kilomter to go, and the group breaks into pieces! Anacona, Majka and Iturria are still able to follow Carapaz, Wirtgen being the last one to let go. Kennaugh and Valls are behind, followed by Costagli, Roman, Kastrantas, Kozhatayev, Velits and Bernal.
But the sprint was launched a tad too early, and so Anacona easily outpsrints Carapaz to take full points on Passo Daone!
Majka is next, followed by Iturria and Valls who edges out Wirtgen on the final meters. Kennaugh takes the final points, which gives us the following points distribution:
This means that no matter what happens on the last climb of the day, Roman will keep the Maglia Azzurra, still leading by 18 points with only 16 points still on the table.
Uh-oh, the leader question for Generali just seems to be clear right now, as Talansky has lost contact! Karnulin is in the same group, a bit further ahead, meaning that we now have 6th Reis, 10th Talansky and 12th Karnulin no longer in the peloton!
Meanwhile, Majka has caught up with the much worse downhillers Anacona and Carapaz, clearly capitalizing on his strength on descending roads!
The peloton - or its remainder - has finally arrived on top as well, led by Iino who's sprinting into the downhill. They cross this line more than seven minutes later than Anacona!
It really smells like a breakaway win once more, if they don't speed up quickly! And the speed surely hasn't been very high on this climb, as Malecki still easily sits inside the pack and will probably defend his jersey once more!
But maybe the escapees do the peloton a favor? The pace has clearly slowed down up front, as the leaders were waiting for more riders to catch up. Two bigger groups have now formed, and it seems like a good moment to look at the current timings with 20km to go:
Anacona
Carapaz
Majka
Wirtgen
Valls
Iturria
+ 1'09"
Costagli
Velits
Roman
Kozhatayev
Kennaugh
Bernal
Kastrantas
+ 3'23"
Carboni
Budenieks
+ 6'28"
Peloton (42 riders)
+ 7'48"
Group Talansky (4 riders)
+ 8'31"
Group Karnulin (7 riders)
+ 10'23"
Group Reis (3 riders)
Only three kilometers to go until the front group will tackle the final climb up to the finish line!
And here's the profile of that final ascent! Pretty much like the first one, it isn't very steep, but it's long - more than 17 kilometers! There will again be tough slopes on the final kilometers, so whoever has most left by then has got great chances of winning today!
The second group makes the catch just as the climb starts - and Anacona attacks exactly in this moment! For the moment, nobody seriously tries to respond, well knowing it's a very long way to go!
Still, the pace in the group obviously goes up - which is too much for Kastrantas, Roman, Bernal and even for previous mountain stage winner Costagli!
Talansky has been lucky as well, as he re-joins the peloton at the foot of the climb to Madonna di Campiglio! He brings along McKenna, while Karnulin is still a minute behind.
But given that Amezawa and Quintana, who are leading the pack, are looking really tired, more riders might come back.
Let's look at the timings as the pack starts the climb:
Anacona
+ 35"
Carapaz
Majka
Iturria
Kennaugh
Wirtgen
Velits
Valls
Kozhatayev
+ 1'02"
Kastrantas
Roman
Costagli
Bernal
+ 4'04"
Carboni
Budenieks
+ 5'31"
Peloton (46 riders)
Not much happens on the next few kilometers. Anacona is still extending his lead, second by second - and he only has 10 kilomters left!
The group of 8 is now 1'11" down, while group Roman already trails by 2'43".
Further back, Carboni has now left Budenieks behind, both being more than 5 minutes down on Anacona.
And the peloton? Well, they have indeed slowed down - and the group has "swollen" to 51 riders, including Karnulin! The gap is now back to over 7 minutes - bye bye, stage win!
Here they are, currently led by Iino and Bayly, both seemingly completely empty. All the big names except for Reis - who is still 2'46" down the road - are now inside this group. Malecki seems to be completely in control.
Finally! Just after the 10km banner, Barguil accelerates! Novikov is trying to follow, but that will be a hard job!
Instead, it's Taaramäe who tries to catch the Frenchman, with a very attentive Kritskiy glued to his wheel!
Spilak is setting the pace in the pack, knowing that this trio mustn't be allowed to break free! Shikai, Bongiorno, Schleck, Chiarello, Karnulin, Amador, Faglum Karlsson, Talansky, Haig and Arndt all try to keep up, while Malecki is rather going backwards in this group!
Brenes, Nesset, Laengen, Ji and Aru are even further behind and should beware of splits!
Meanwhile, it's game over for Kozhatayev and Kennaugh - at least they have to let go of the group. Valls and Wirtgen aren't looking good, either, while Anacona still holds onto his one-minute gap!
6.6 kilometers to go for the race leader - who must have been notified of the attacks going on behind as well, hence picking up the pace a little!
Barguil is caught, and it's now Taaramäe setting the pace! Kritskiy hasn't done anything so far - is he waiting to launch his decisive attack?
Spilak has almost caught up as well, but there are still a few meters missing! We can also see that Budenieks has just been caught - Haig should overtake him quickly, or he could lose Chiarello's wheel!
Edited by Fabianski on 22-01-2021 17:29
Only five kilometers to go for Anacona, who is just done with the last somewhat flatter part of the climb!
We now only have a chasing trio left, consisting of Carapaz, Velits and Majka, as Iturria, Valls and Wirtgen have been dropped!
Talansky is dropped again! And this time for good, probably. With him are four Festina riders, who certainly did a good race so far, but can now no longer help their leader Bongiorno.
Schleck is falling behind as well! That's definitely not a good day for him - but at least he has Kirsch left up front!
Salinas is struggling as well, while Spilak has again picked up the pace to finally close that little gap!
But he still hasn't managed to do so, and he's getting absolutely no help! While in the group up front, Taaramäe and Kritskiy are now sharing the workload, hence slowly extending their advantage!
And that incredible Malecki guy is still hanging on with the really big guns - hats off!
Let's try to get an overview of what the current situation looks like:
Anacona
+ 40"
Carapaz
Velits
Majka
+ 1'19"
Iturria
+ 1'29"
Valls
Wirtgen
+ 2'21"
Kozhatayev
Kennaugh
+ 3'49"
Costagli
Bernal
+ 4'13"
Taaramäe
Kritskiy
Barguil
Roman
Kastrantas
+ 4'44"
Spilak
Amador
Haig
Shikai
Arndt
Faglum Karlsson
Kirsch
Bongiorno
Chiarello
Vosekalns
Carboni
Malecki
So the chasers have slightly closed in on Anacona, with only 40" left! Can he hold on until the line? 3.2 kilometers left for him!
That's what 40 seconds look like. Everyone is struggling now - let's see if Anacona can really fend off Carapaz, Velits and Majka!
Malecki is dropped! With a bit more than 4km to go, the Maglia Rosa has to let go of the top climbers - what a performance once again! He now has to find his rhythm and try to keep the time loss as small as possible - let's see how it works out!
Or he can hope for those ahead to slow down again - but that's unlikely as long as group Taaramäe is ahead!
And something we didn't even notice before is that Brenes, Bongiorno, Nesset, Karnulin, Aru and Kruijswijk are actually in Malecki's group as well!
So left in the group right ahead are only Spilak, Amador, Haig, Shikai, Arndt, Faglum Karlsson, Kirsch and Chiarello!
It's raining and snowing now! Bernal and Costagli are caught by Kritskiy, Taaramäe and Barguil, while Roman is still able to hang on as well. Kastrantas was dropped quite some time ago, we just saw him with Malecki.
3.8km to go for these riders, 2.3 for the leader!
Here he is! Anacona just enters the last 2 kilomters of the climb - and of the stage - having extended his lead to 51" again!
Meanwhile, Iturria is about to be caught by Valls and Wirtgen, while Carapaz, Majka and Velits are desperately fighting to close that gap to Anacona!
Same place, different riders, as Taaramäe, Kritskiy and Barguil are flying by!
Spilak still has to do all the work on his own - let's hope he won't pay for it in the end!
Here we finally have some images of today's big Italian losers! Aru and Bongiorno are both in group Malecki - and are even struggling to stay there!
Brenes, Kruijswijk and Nesset are here, too - quite some Top 20 spots to be redistributed!
Fiamma Rossa for Anacona! He has extended his lead to 1'08" - that must be the stage win for him!
Meanwhile, Taaramäe, Kritskiy and Barguil are punching up this mountain, having almost caught Kennaugh, Valls and Wirtgen! Kennaugh however had an amazing second wind, almost catching up to those ahead, while he was a minute behind some kilometers ago!
Group Spilak is now 32" behind this trio, and has just left behind Kirsch and Faglum Karlsson!
Only 600 meters to go for Anacona - but with slopes of up to 10%, it looks as if he was creeping up this climb!
He can see Carapaz, Majka and Barguil, with Iturria showing a great performance as well!
But beware of Taaramäe, Barguil and Kritskiy, who are already under the red kite as well - can they even fight for the podium? Or more?
Here we have Faglum Karlsson, who has really cracked hard! He's together with Roman, who obviously is tired after his long breakaway.
We already knew that Kirsch had been distanced - but now we as well see Amador with him! Which means that only 4 riders should be left with Spilak!
Well, there are actually five, having just caught Kennaugh. Chiarello and Arndt seem to be struggling, too, while Haig still looks pretty good. And Shikai may want to pass Kennaugh as quickly as possible as well!
Wirtgen and Valls then are the next riders up the road - and we see Taaramäe, Kritskiy and Barguil catching Iturria!
But Carapaz, Velits and Majka aren't much further ahead, either - it will be a close fight for the podium!
Wow, that's a bit early, my dear Anacona! Still 300m to the line, still slopes of more than 7% - but he celebrates his stage win! Can he really be sure about that one yet?
Carapaz, Majka and Velits give it all they have left, well knowing that Taaramäe, Kritskiy and Barguil are closing in very fast!
Iturria has already been left behind by this trio, while Haig has finally taken command in the chasing group.
Arndt and Chiarello have been dropped, together with Kennaugh!
Fortunately for Carapaz, Majka and Velits, the climb isn't very steep on the final meters anymore, which might allow them to secure the podium spots ahead of Taaramäe, Kritskiy and Barguil! But it might still be a close one!
What is sure by now is that Winner Anacona clearly lives up to his name today, by being victorious on stage 15 of the 2020 Giro d'Italia! After a solo ride of more than 15 kilometers on the final climb, he claims a great win here in Madonna di Campiglio - his first GT stage win! Congratulations!
But what happens behind? Carapaz, Velits and Majka seem to have not much left, while Taaramäe is getting closer and closer - too close?
Meanwhile, Haig and Shikai have left behind Spilak! It's not really great sportsmanship to not do any work at all and then ride away on the final kilometer, but well, it is what it is...
Iturria is still with them as well - which could end up in a Top 10 stage result for him!
Only a few meters left, and Taaramäe is now leaving Barguil and Kritskiy behind, joining the former chasing trio! Carapaz is in pole position for 2nd place - will he hold on?
Taaramäe has already left Majka behind and is about to do the same with Velits! However, it should be too late for Carapaz, shouldn't it?
Well, it was even too late for Peter Velits, who takes 3rd, behind Richard Antonio Carapaz!
Rein Taaramäe has to settle with 4th today - the favorites' attacks just came too late!
Rafel Majka then takes 5th, which must be slightly disappointing.
Warren Barguil, who initiated this move from the peloton, crosses the line 10 seconds later, followed by Timofey Kritskiy. These two take 6th and 7th.
And it seems as if the officials want to keep the race open, as they don't award a gap here! From Carapaz to Kritskiy, all get the same time, namely 35" behind Anacona.
However, there definitely IS a gap behind, and even a pretty large one. Jack Haig and Chen Shikai both get the same time, losing 1'27" today. Which means that they confirm their 4th and 5th GC ranks today, as Barguil wasn't a real danger (yet?), and the other two are already ahead anyway.
Mikel Iturria then indeed takes the final Top 10 spot of the stage, losing 1'43".
And then comes poor Simon Spilak... He had no help at all, he had to set the pace on the final 10 kilometers, only to be beaten by two wheel-suckers. Had they helped him instead, they might have caught the attacking trio...
But well, it is what it is, and that's a 1'51" deficit and 11th place on the stage. In the same group are, in order, Nikias Arndt, Rafael Valls, Tom Wirtgen and William Chiarello.
Alex Kirsch is the next finisher, along with Tim Kennaugh. Both arrive 2'26" after the stage winner, taking 16th and 17th.
Andrei Amador was dropped from the Spilak group after Kirsch - but maybe he should have let go before, as he completely cracked in the end. The Costa Rican finishes the stage on 19th place, just behind Bakhtiyar Kozhatayev, with a 2'53" deficit.
Christian Mager surely did a good job today, taking the final Top 20 spot and leading home a group with Nesset, Brenes, Faglum Karlsson, Kruijswijk, Sosnitskiy and Vervaeke - three Gazelle riders, but no pink jersey yet!
The gap for this group is 3'24", while Roman just missed out on hanging on, losing an additional 20".
Next are three escapees, with Bernal, Costagli and Kastrantas. 4'06" for them - but how much does Malecki lose today?
Here he finally is, together with three teammates and Aru! Geoghegan Hart, Bibby and Karnulin - another big loser - were with him, which makes 7 Gazelle riders in the Top 35 of the stage - but none in the Top 20.
And it's a loss of 4'42", meaning that Taaramäe gets pretty close now!
It's an even worse day for Bongiorno, who seemed to easily hang on to group Spilak - but suddenly had a complete breakdown and loses exactly 5 minutes today!
Schleck is still two more minutes behind, though, waving goodbye to a potential GC Top 10. It has been a horrible final climb for him!
No more leadership questions for Generali, as Talansky loses more than 8 minutes and now trails Spilak by 5 minutes.
But there's one man who may have had the worst day of his life: Reis. For some still unkown reasons, he lost contact with the peloton early in the stage, then tried to catch up again for the remaining kilometers - but finally lost almost 10 minutes. And thereby every hope of a GC podium that seemed to be within reach after yesterday's strong showing. What a bummer - even worse than Spilak on stage 4!
The final rider out on the road - new red lantern Boudat - arrives almost one hour after the winner - which is still enough to make the time limit. All riders will be at the start line tomorrow - but it's likely that not all will finish in time...
But before losing a few words about tomorrow's stage, let's look back on today's - and especially on the great winner!
And here's the Winner Anacona! On stage 4, he buried all hopes of a good GC result - allowing him to join the breakaway today, where he clearly was the strongest! His solo ride up the final climb to Madonna di Campiglio was a great show - what a way to secure your first GT stage win! Congratulations to newly promoted ISA - Hexacta for their third win in this Giro, being the most successful team so far!
Richard Antonio Carapaz was the strongest climber on paper - but it took more than "just" climbing skills today. He chose not to go after Anacona when he attacked - in hindsight, he'd probably do otherwise. Still, after many disappointing stages, he finally gets a notable result for his team!
On 3rd place, we have someone who already knows the GT stage podiums of the world pretty well - Peter Velits! Although he would have loved to win - the Giro being his only GT where he hasn't done so before - he finally must be happy for having been able to fend off an incredibly strong Taaramäe. Getting a GT stage podium at 35 years is great in any case!
Let's cheer one more time - maybe the last? - on Kamil Malecki, our Maglia Rosa! Although he looked great all the way, he suffered a lot on the final four kilometers, conceding four minutes to Rein Taaramäe!
The Estonian of course is still 2nd, but he only trails by 3'02" now! Malecki's days in pink seem to be counted, given the grueling stage awaiting tomorrow. He did a great job once again - but he definitely got to feel his limited climbing skills today.
Timofey Kritskiy was lucky that the officials didn't award a gap between him and Taaramäe, so he still trails the latter by just 28" and Malecki by 3'30".
These two are pretty much in a race of their own, as Haig in 4th place already trails them by two minutes, with Shikai another 30" down.
However, Barguil has moved up to 6th with today's great show - if he pulls off some more of these, he might get back into the race for a podium!
And don't rule out Spilak, either - although he surely wasn't among the happiest riders today. But if once he can make a move that sticks - beware!
Arnaud Demare will likely step onto this podium every day for the rest of the race, with no-one even close to him in the point standings. The Maglia Ciclamino is pretty safe on his shoulders, as he still leads 59 points ahead of Rein Taaramäe, who has taken 2nd now.
Mathieu van der Poel is still 3rd, 62 points back. And this likely won't change tomorrow, either - but maybe the day after.
What might change tomorrow, however, is the Maglia Azzurra wearer. Today, Aleksandar Roman defended it, and even extended his lead, totalling 52 points now. However, on the harder climbs he couldn't keep up with the best - let's see if he can still collect enough points in the next days!
Winner Anacona has moved up from nowhere to 2nd, collecting all of his 36 points (out of 42 that would have been possible) today. He trails by 16 points, which is equivalent to a category 1 climb - whereof we'll get one tomorrow.
Anacona's teammate Petr Vakoc has now slipped down to 3rd, still sitting on his 34 points. Could a team attack secure the jersey for ISA - Hexacta? Their current position is great in each case!
For once, let's present Kamil Malecki's Maglia Bianca as well. And unlike the Maglia Rosa, it's quite probable that he'll keep this one for some more days, as he has even further extended his lead today!
In fact, former 3rd placed Egan Bernal has gained 36" today, moving up to 2nd place and trailing by 17'30" now. He switched places with Kristaps Budenieks, who lost quite a lot of time and now is 18'26" behind.
More than a quarter of an hour ahead of the closest chasers - is that enough? Sure, there are some good climbers, but making up more than 15 minutes? We'll see!
Last but not least, Gazelle have defended their lead in the team standings! And only 2nd placed Aegon - Peroni were actually stronger today, gaining back 2'27" - which means that they "only" trail by 11'55" now!
All other teams lost some time today, which made Grieg-Maersk move up from 5th to 3rd, with a 20'25" deficit! If Gazelle continue to bring 7 riders in the Top 35 of a stage, they could indeed hold on to this title - let's see!
We have arrived at the end of today's live broadcast. The third and final week of the 2020 Giro d'Italia has kicked off with a mountain stage that was rather lame - until the final 10 kilometers. The GC has taken a pretty clear shape - but with more than 4,500 meters of elevation gain in tomorrow's stage, a lot can change. We already saw great riders crack today - let's see what tomorrow brings!
Giro d'Italia 
