Ladies and gentlemen - the day of truth of the 2020 Giro d'Italia is upon us! Welcome to Gravellona Toce, where the riders will start to this year's queen stage in a few minutes! Not only will we have three category 1 climbs on the final 85 kilometers - with a total length of over 230 kilometers, this stage is the second longest of the whole race!
But before we'll go into the details of the three big climbs, let's first talk about today's start location. Founded in prehistorical ages, this former settlement grew into a small city of about 8,000 inhabitants. It's a neighboring city to yesterday's arrival location Verbania, but is not itself located on the lakeside. The ruins of the Castello del Motto are among the main sights in this location, along with quite a few churches.
From here, the riders will first have a few flat kilometers to warm up, riding first along the Strona river, then along the eastern lakeside of Lago d'Orta, before heading westwards to Cossato, Biella and then Mongrando.
They will then tackle the first climb of the day - just 3rd category, so that will just be kind of a warm-up. However, reaching the top of Passo de la Serra after 86.5km means that there's still a long way to go until they actually reach the mountains.
After the descent, we'll reach the intermediate sprint in Pont-Saint-Martin, after 105.4km. And no, we're not in France, despite the French-looking name - it's the entry of the Aosta Valley, where we'll stay for the rest of the day, and where the cities have French names.
We'll see; so far, the top climbers weren't too aggressive - maybe they saved all their energy for today's queen stage! More than 4,700m of elevation gain testify of the difficulties ahead - but as we've seen in the last days, it's the riders who make a stage difficult or not, and not just the profile.
Will Malecki amaze us another time and defend the Maglia Rosa in Cervinia? Or will he have to hand over the jersey after exactly two weeks in the race lead? If so, it will likely be one of today's stage favorites succeeding him on top of the GC - but it's far from sure that one of them will also take the stage win, given the many breakaway successes so far (12/16).
Let's still take a quick look at whom the bookmakers see on top of the queen stage: we know them, of course: Taaramäe, Kritskiy and Spilak. If any of the former two indeed wins the stage, he should have good chances of taking the Maglia Rosa, while Spilak would need a stellar day to do so. But Barguil, Reis and Amador can climb very well, too - just as Shikai, Haig, Schleck and Bongiorno - and that's by far not all great climbers on this list! Let's see what happens - and let's hope for a really, really exciting queen stage!
Although it's not the most beautiful day of the race, there's no rain, no wind - perfect conditions! Before the action really starts, let's take a look at our four special jersey wearers:
Maglia Rosa
Kamil Malecki
Maglia Azzurra
Aleksandar Roman
Maglia Ciclamino
Arnaud Demare
Maglia Bianca
Egan Bernal (in Malecki's stead)
Let's see if anything changes today, as it's the 7th day the jerseys are on the same shoulders (not completely right for the U25 jersey, as different riders wore it in the leader's stead).
It takes five kilometers until we have the first attacker, who is Vosekalns.
Bernal is chasing hard, followed by Salinas, Brenes, Anacona and Kozhatayev - but there's no real gap to the rest of the peloton so far.
However, this changed quickly, and so we now have 6 men up front. Teklehaimanot and Schir try to catch up with them, by the shores of Lago d'Orta.
It isn't over yet: Ji launches the next breakaway attempt, with Iino and Faglum Karlsson trying to follow.
So far, Anacona is in a very promising position in terms of KoM standings, as neither Roman nor Carapaz have tried to join the breakaway so far - winning a single 1st category KoM sprint would then be enough for him to take the lead! Let's see if we get a reaction.
Not yet - but we have Boswell on the attack, who currently is 5th in the KoM standings, 30 points off the lead.
Kennaugh is a regular attacker by now, whereas Karnulin dares to try again after having completely cracked on his stage 16 attempt.
Still no reaction from either Roman or Carapaz - maybe they're betting on the pack to reel in the escapees before the first KoM sprint?
Majka and Laengen however think it's still worth a try, being numbers 15 and 16 trying to go clear.
So far, the pack seems to be more or less content with the situation. Apparently, it's just Oliveira who isn't; when he leads, the gap drops by a few seconds, when he falls back the deficit goes up again. Right now, it's hovering around just 1'30".
All but Majka and Laengen have caught up with the leading group - where the pace goes up as well now.
Majka seems to be rather impatient, as he thinks closing the gap together with Laengen takes too long. So he leaves the Norwegian behind.
And Majka indeed makes it to the front rather quickly, making it a leading group of 15 riders. With the lead above 3 minutes, we probably have found the Breakaway of the Day - the only open question is with or without Laengen, who already trails by more than a minute now.
But let's just count him in as we take a closer look at the escapees. Once more, we have almost exclusively good to very good climbers, with Boswell being the only exception. Today's ascents will probably be much too long for the puncheur.
Ji and Anacona form a very strong duo for ISA - Hexacta, while Brenes and Faglum Karlsson, who both match their climbing skills, are on their own. Karnulin and Vosekalns then are next - at least on paper.
Salinas, Kennaugh, Kozhatayev, yesterday's runner-up Teklehaimanot, Iino and Schir are all about equally strong in the mountains - with the latter representing one out of only two teams without a single stage podium so far. Can he change that for Team UBS?
Majka, Laengen and Bernal are slightly behind the others considering their climbing skills - but the latter has had a really good race so far, wearing the white jersey and having taken a stage podium yesterday. By the way, Bernal is the only unmaxed rider in this group, being even just level 3...
We definitely should take a look at current GC positions as well, as some riders will even be trying to enter the Top 10:
10.
Nesset
+ 9'56"
13.
Kennaugh
+ 11'25"
15.
Bernal
+ 12'42"
17.
Faglum Karlsson
+ 13'45"
18.
Brenes
+ 14'22"
Which means that both Kennaugh and Bernal are already inside the virtual Top 10 with the current gap!
And in terms of KoM points, Anacona is in a great position now, being only 14 points down on Roman, with only Boswell in serious contention as well from this group (-30 points). Let's see if Roman took a bad choice when he decided not to join the breakaway!
And finally, let's get an overview of all these riders:
Anacona
Ji
Faglum Karlsson
Brenes
Majka
Boswell
Vosekalns
Karnulin
Salinas
Kennaugh
Kozhatayev
Teklehaimanot
Schir
Iino
Bernal
Laengen
Well, we can probably definitely cancel Laengen from this list, as he's losing more and more time. Although he's still extending his lead on the peloton, he's already two minutes behind the front group, and he really looks tired - the upcoming hills surely won't favor him.
Now it's Naud showing a similar behavior as Oliveira did earlier - as soon as the pack's deficit grows above 5 minutes, he brings it down below, then stops chasing - only to see it go up again. Repeating again and again.
Just before the leaders start the short hill up to Biella, we have a long straight road where we can see everyone. Laengen now is exactly mid-way between the two groups - 2'30" behind the leaders, 2'30" ahead of the pack. He'd rather abandon this waste of energy...
First puncture of the day. Cavagna is the unlucky fellow who has to wait for his team car. However, he makes it back a little later without too much effort.
After the descent from Biella, the breakaway will shortly tackle the warm-up climb to Passo de la Serra. Not even 5% steep on average, this really shouldn't be a problem for anyone. Still, 6 points are on offer for the first on top!
Faglum Karlsson leads the group on the first slopes of this incline. Laengen has almost been swallowed by the pack, being just a minute ahead. The gap between peloton and escapees is still hovering around 5 minutes.
The climb goes by rather uneventfully - Bernal then launches the sprint with just 700m to go! Anacona is in second last position and surely won't score here, while Boswell is next to Brenes, in 3rd or 4th position.
That's a close call between Bernal and Boswell! The US-American apparently crossed the line a tad earlier, getting the points maximum:
Boswell has now overtaken Vakoc (34 points) and moves up to 4th - but he's still 24 points behind Roman.
Leung finally catches Laengen, with 2 kilomters of climbing to go for the peloton.
A few minutes later, Eislers leads the bunch across the top. Their current deficit is 5'12" - let's see how that changes on the descent.
While the pack has just left the tunnel and has most of the downhill still ahead, the breakaway has already hit the valley - where the road will lead them slightly upwards to the intermediate sprint now.
And here they already are, having reached Pont-Saint-Martin, the entrance to the Valle d'Aosta. Bernal takes full points today.
The pack has very slightly picked up the pace, with the gap now at 4'45". Heavy worker Naud leads them into the Aosta Valley.
The escapees have now reached the first of three consecutive hills, this one leading up to Saint-Vincent. It's a great terrain to warm up the climbing legs!
Generali have now decided that it's time to seriously start chasing, after the deficit went up to 5'20". They bring it down by 30" in no time, with Rosskopf and Fernandes taking turns.
Second hill for the breakaway, who now loses time pretty fast. Less than 4'30" remaining - and the real climbing is only about to start. 13 more kilometers to Lillaz.
No, not again! It's unbelievable, but Reis is the first rider to lose contact with the peloton! There was no notification about a technical issue whatsoever - he simply dropped out of the bunch! Hsu is waiting for him - but it's really just inexplicable what happens here!
Of course, the pack is now moving really fast, with Vangstad, Pruus and Castrillo taking over up front - but that's still no explication why a top climber should simply fall off! Well...
By the way, the pack has reduced the gap to 3'40" on this second hill.
It's no surprise that other riders were dropped on this undulating parcours, but there are no other big names among them. And Reis is even struggling to keep up with his teammates! I mean, he isn't a great flat rider - but not a slouch, either! Really... strange.
And here we go! Kennaugh leads the group on these first slopes, while the chasing pack is just on the last few flat meters of today's stage!
The climb is on for the pack as well! Castrillo, Pruus, Vangstad, Foss and Taaramäe - Aker - MOT have built up their train! But all other GC contenders (bar Reis unfortunately) are close to the front of the pack - will we already see an attack on this first mountain?
The breakaway's lead is down to 3'10" - let's see if they can make it over the top, or if Roman or Carapaz will try to catch them before to get the points!
At least, Reis is back in the pack. But it's a long way to go until he arrives up front - let's hope for him that no gaps open before!
But that hope was in vain... After being on the right side of the first split - in which most of the sprinters and time trialists were dropped - Reis is caught behind on this one. Conti is the last rider hanging onto the peloton.
Let's not forget that we still have a breakaway group up front - with their lead cut down to 2'24" currently.
More and more riders are falling off - Barthe and Niu are among the latest ones, but Izagirre has been dropped, too. Reis is in the group at the end of the U-turn.
The pace in the pack eventually was too high for Demare as well. But the time limit shouldn't be a concern for him, so his jersey won't be endangered today.
90 riders remain up front, including all GC and stage favorites bar Reis.
Up front, it's surprisingly Ji who is dropped first. Sure, the Chinese did do a lot of work, but he still should be able to keep up as long as someone like Boswell. But well, low resistance hurts on long climbs...
2 minutes of advantage left for the group!
Even though the pack once again slows down as the helpers are starting to tire, Ji is eventually caught and soon left behind. 76 riders remain in the peloton, trailing the leaders by 2'55" now.
Reis has just passed Demare further behind - which would be great news in a mass sprint finish, but definitely not on a mountain stage.
Five kilometers to go until the top - and now it's indeed Boswell who has to let go! He did what he could, collecting 6 KoM points and working in the group for his teammate Majka - but this climb just was too long for him. And there are still 5 kilometers to go...
5 kilometers to the top now as well for the peloton, from which Laengen has been dropped - the most notable name so far besides Ji. Only 66 riders remain in the big group - even though they're still riding slower than the breakaway! The gap has gone up to 3'35".
Up front, Faglum Karlsson launches the sprint with about 1km of climbing to go. Kozhatayev is the next rider to be dropped - but given his good downhill skills, he might catch up again on the long descent!
None of these is a real danger for Roman's jersey - if Anacona continues to ignore the points and if the pack doesn't catch the breakaway, the Serb will likely keep the Maglia Azzurra despite not being on the attack today!
The pack finally reached the top 5'37" behind the leaders! So they lost more than three minutes on the second half of the climb - once again an underwhelming performace - or a great show by the breakaway?
Underwhelming is true as well for Aru, who has lost contact on the last meters of the ascent, being in this group together with Vakoc, Campero, Roe, Harper, Vangstad and Spanopoulos. Only 50 riders remain in the pack - however, this group should be able to catch up again on the downhill.
And so they did, bringing the headcount up to 57. Meanwhile, Reis is now leading the first chasing group, "only" 1'36" behind the pack! Can he make an amazing return? He'll have to hope that the peloton's speed isn't too high on the descent, though.
Up front, Kozhatayev has almost made the catch - but then there's that short counterslope where he just hasn't enough punch to jump to Schir's wheel.
Meanhile, the pack has finally caught Boswell on the descent, with Fernandes pushing hard, almost dropping some riders on that downhill!
Reis is still leading this group all the way, but this counterslope definitely hurts him - especially given that the pack pretty much sprinted across! He's again 2 minutes down - but at least the morale still seems to be fine.
Meanwhile, his teammate Teklehaimanot leads the breakaway into the day's toughest climb. Kozhatayev has almost made the catch at the end of the descent - will he be able to hold on?
The peloton is now about to tackle that ascent as well. We still have a very impressive presence of Gazelle riders in the peloton - all bar Karnulin, who is in the breakaway group, are still in the 58-rider pack!
They start the climb with a deficit of 4'24", having gained slightly more than a minute on the downhill.
Reis has left behind the group, as he didn't get any help anyway. But it's still quite some distance to go - and he has to hope that the pace will stay as low as it was on the previous climb!
But they seem to climb pretty fast, as some riders are already dropped from the bunch after the first kilometers. Harper and Roe are right ahead of Reis now, while Grigrian and Spanopoulos have just lost contact. 54 riders are left in the big group.
However, the headcount quickly goes down further, as Aru is now dropped for good, together with Vakoc, Vangstad, Brown and Campero, who is a few meters further behind.
And the pace is really high, as the breakaway's lead has dropped to 2'47" on the first five kilometers of the climb!
Kozhatayev did indeed make the catch - but he's now falling behind again. This time, there are more than 10 kilometers of climbing left - it's hard to see him come back once more.
Ludvigsson was setting a high pace for most of the climb so far - but he's clearly tiring now. The pack's deficit is now rather constant, around 2'30". 11 kilometers uphill to go for them. Ioannidis has just been dropped as well, leaving 48 riders in what once was the peloton.
Roman now has to hope that Carapaz doesn't score on this stage, as the Serb will very likely not gain any points today. He's dropped along with Velits, Boswell, McKenna and Goncalves, while Fernandes and Zoidl are still fighting to keep in touch.
Blums is leading the pack with still 9.5km of climbing to go, while his teammate Budenieks is at the end of the group. 41 riders are in this group, whereof many are starting to look really tired.
The deficit on the leading group is still 2'25", while Kozhatayev is already in sight and will be caught soon.
And we have the next group of 7 riders who can't keep up with the pack any more: Aranburu, Sergis, Canty, Abreu, Dyball, Mavrikakis and Budenieks. Zoidl and Fernandes are behind them, having lost their battle to keep contact.
35 riders are still in the group after Kozhatayev has been caught, thereof all GC contenders bar Reis and those who are in the breakaway.
And that breakaway is reduced by one member, as Schir has to let go. It will probably be yet another day without a podium for Team UBS - except if Amador finally finds his best climbing legs!
The pace in the peloton slows down a little, making the deficit again go up to 3 minutes. Still, it's too high for Van Niekerk.
The rest of the climb then goes by without any more riders losing contact. Faglum Karlsson launches his attack for the KoM points very early, with 1.8km still to go - just in the steepest parts of the climb!
However, he isn't able to go clear, and with 1.1km to the top, it's Karnulin accelerating! Faglum Karlsson and Brenes are very attentive, while Majka, Salinas and Anacona aren't able to keep up!
And Karnulin gets a small gap with 700m of climbing left! Faglum Karlsson, Brenes and Teklehaimanot are the strongest of the group, the others being unable to follow this attack!
Faglum Karlsson gets a good amount of points again, too, while Teklehaimanot and Brenes are struggling to keep up with the Swedish champion!
Vosekalns, Iino, Kennaugh and Bernal have lost 1'40" on this final kilometer of the climb! It looks like 5 riders are still in the race for the stage win - if the peloton doesn't finally decide to clearly speed up!
Faglum Karlsson and Karnulin have now entered the Top 10 of the KoM standings with the points gained today - but none of them will be able to take the jersey today.
Majka, Salinas and Anacona look really tired as they finally arrive on the mountaintop, 2'13" behind Karnulin. Maybe the fantastic view of the Matterhorn can motivate them to at least catch up with the next group!
And no, they don't have to climb all the way up to that mountain - just to its foot, in Cervinia.
Schir, although trailing by 4'50" already, is still ahead of the pack, which has slowed down incredibly! He can still see all of his former companions ahead on the road - as well as the road leading up to Cervinia.
Finally, the peloton arrives on top! The clock displays a deficit of 6'38" as Blums crosses the line! That's four minutes more than the minimum on that climb - nobody wanted to take even the least amount of risk, hence likely once more losing out on a possible stage win!
And you have surely noticed that Malecki is still easily following, protected by Powless. Only one climb to hold on!
At least, Reis has now found some pretty good company. KoM leader Roman is in this group, and Velits definitely isn't a slouch on the uphills, either. But that won't be much of a consolation for him, as he trails the race lead by 9'23", and the pack by almost 3 minutes now... What on earth happened there, I'm still wondering...
The head of the race will soon reach the junction marking the start of the climb to Cervinia. In terms of length, it's between the two other category 1 mountains - but it's the easiest of the day. Especially the first 8 kilometers are mostly more of a false flat than a real climb, with just one steeper section.
The steepest slopes then follow after about half of the distance, with the climb however again easing off towards the top. Had it been an isolated climb, we probably wouldn't see any big gaps - but with more than 30km of climbing already done, fatigue will surely play a role!
Strong downhiller Faglum Karlsson has caught up with Karnulin on the descent, while Teklehaimanot and Brenes currently have a 27" gap. Let's see if they are able to re-join the leading duo!
Teklehaimanot and Brenes are indeed able to close the gap on the initial slopes, hence wasting only little energy. We now have a leading quartet - and one consisting of really good climbers!
Bernal, Vosekalns, Iino and Kennaugh are trying to catch up as well, but they haven't gained a lot of time on the downhill. They're now 10" closer than they were on the mountaintop - still a long way to go!
The situation of Majka, Anacona and Salinas is similar, as they've only come about 18" closer to the leaders on the descent. However, they're still far ahead of the pack, so they surely will look ahead rather than behind.
The 34-rider peloton has just started the final ascent as well, 6 minutes after Karnulin!
Let's see who is still inside this group:
Malecki
Kruijswijk
Bibby
Geoghegan Hart
Vervaeke
Sosnitskiy
Powless
Spilak
Talansky
Ludvigsson
Kirsch
Schleck
Wirtgen
Valls
Ciccone
Carboni
Taaramäe
Amezawa
Kritskiy
Novikov
Shikai
Costagli
Chiarello
Blums
Nesset
Iturria
Arndt
Mager
Haig
Barguil
Amador
Carapaz
Bongiorno
Kozhatayev
Most of the GC favorites still have at least one domestique with them - but what is simply amazing is Gazelle's team work: not a single rider has been dropped, and one of them is even fighting for the stage win up front! Insane! I guess there are no more questions about who will win the team standings - and why...
Not unexpected, Kozhatayev is then the first to lose contact, having been in the breakaway all day long.
Blums is really pushing hard now, having reduced the pack's deficit by almost a minute within two kilometers!
And we can find the reason for this - the pace up front has completely collapsed, allowing the chasing group to make good their 90" deficit. Anacona, Salinas and Majka are still trailing by 1'14" - will they let them come back as well?
But with the pack clearly speeding up, they shouldn't start playing tactical games now up front!
As soon as Schir is reeled in, he makes one long shift, giving all that he has left! The gap has dropped to less than 5 minutes now - but we're still waiting for the big attacks!
Faglum Karlsson decides that the pace is definitely too slow, and attacks out of the leading group! 13.8km to go - can he go solo? Or can someone respond to this move?
The latter is the case, as Vosekalns jumps away from the chasers and joins Faglum Karlsson up front! They've already built up a 45" lead, reaching the last flatter part of the climb.
The pace set by Schir was too much for Ludvigsson and Costagli. While Spilak still has luxury domestique Talansky by his side, Shikai is now all alone!
Meanwhile, the pace in the chasing group has dropped, allowing Anacona, Majka and Salinas to finally catch up with them. But this also means that the lead of Faglum Karlsson and Vosekalns has increased - to 1'45"! Is this gap already a decisive one?
The peloton trails the leading duo by 4'39" - and therefore the chasers by less than 3 minutes.
But the chasers have again picked up the pace, quickly bringing down the gap to one minute!
Ten kilometers to go! Vosekalns and Faglum Karlsson have accelerated as well, putting again some more seconds in between themselves and the chasing group! 1'25" is the current gap.
And it's 4'47" to the pack - a great situation for the breakaway once again!
Under the 10km arc, it's Kennaugh's turn to attack! He tries to bridge the one-minute gap to the leading duo, while Anacona has lost contact and is already out of sight!
Therefore, 7 riders remain in the chasing group: Teklehaimanot, Brenes, Karnulin, Bernal, Iino, Majka and Salinas.
Meanwhile, group Reis isn't even that far back, either! They are about to catch Ludvigsson and Kozhatayev. Costagli has even been able to re-join, proving that the pace in the pack isn't that high anymore.
Kennaugh has indeed bridged the gap - but just as he has reached the front group, Faglum Karlsson accelerates again! The Swede just wants to do it on his own - can any of these two respond again?
The chasers are 1'38" down - can someone else imitate Kennaugh and jump ahead as well?
Attack! Schleck rides away from the peloton and is about to overtake Anacona, who looks completely empty.
For the moment, it's Amezawa trying to keep the Luxembourger at bay - indeed, he's not the most dangerous rival of his leader Taaramäe. Will we see some more moves?
Up front, Faglum Karlsson is extending his lead, which has been communicated to be already 33". Vosekalns and Kennaugh haven't tried to jump after him, instead just trying to find a steady pace.
Now it's definitely over with chilling in the pack! Chiarello and Barguil launch the next attack - and now it's Carboni who's trying to chase them down!
Costagli has been dropped again in the meantime, and Blums is now in serious troubles as well! Powless has taken the lead in the pack - it's pretty much the first time that Gazelle are actually working to defend their GC lead!
And they're not just working a little bit, but they're putting pretty much everyone in the chase now! Vervaeke, Kruijswijk, Geoghegan Hart and Bibby are now building the mountain train, while Powless and Sosnitskiy don't look great anymore.
Anacona, Blums and Schir have been dropped - 27 riders remain in this group!
Schleck, Barguil and Chiarello have already left behind the former chasing group, with the Luxembourger still holding a slight advantage over the others. Radio Tour has just announced that Teklehaimanot had in fact attacked from this group and is now chasing Kennaugh and Vosekalns!
Vervaeke was even too fast for the peloton and now has to wait!
To get some kind of an overview in this rather chaotic race situation, let's take a look at the current timings:
Faglum Karlsson
+ 1'08"
Vosekalns
Kennaugh
+ 1'52"
Teklehaimanot
+ 3'05"
Schleck
+ 3'16"
Barguil
Chiarello
Brenes
Karnulin
Salinas
Iino
Majka
Bernal
+ 4'23"
Peloton
Faglum Karlsson has further extended his lead - and only 5 kilometers are remaining for him!
Behind the peloton, Novikov and Amezawa have been dropped, leaving Taaramäe and Kritskiy all alone as well!
And this is the moment where Taaramäe decides it's time to go! Can Vervaeke follow?
And how much energy does Malecki have left? He's towards the end of the group now!
Faglum Karlsson still has a good lead, but the chasers can still see him on these twisty roads! He's now 1'11" ahead of Vosekalns and Kennaugh - that should be enough, if he doesn't crack completely!
Kritskiy has now taken the lead in the pack, with Bongiorno at the other end of it. Bibby and Powless have just been dropped, along with Iturria, reducing the headcount of Malecki's helpers to 4 - which is still by far the best anyone has now!
Taaramäe hasn't been able to really break free, just holding a few seconds of advantage. Chiarello and Barguil have now joined Schleck, as we can see further up the mountain.
Salinas and Bernal have lost contact with Brenes, Karnulin, Iino and Majka, and will soon be swallowed by the pack.
Just to make sure you're able to follow who is still in the peloton, here's an overview:
Malecki
Sosnitskiy
Kruijswijk
Vervaeke
Geoghegan Hart
Valls
Ciccone
Carboni
Spilak
Talansky
Kirsch
Wirtgen
Arndt
Mager
Kritskiy
Haig
Shikai
Amador
Nesset
Bongiorno
Carapaz
Barguil has now taken command in the chasing group, while Taaramäe has already passed Salinas and is about to catch Bernal
Teklehaimanot can be seen a little further up front - and he's actually about to catch up with Vosekalns and Kennaugh, who are just hidden by the trees.
Uh-oh, Faglum Karlsson seems to be slightly fading now! While he has extended his lead on the chasing trio ( Teklehaimanot has indeed made the catch) to 1'26", the group led by Barguil is now less than 2 minutes behind - and moving really fast!
Taaramäe is 2'28" back, the remainders of the peloton - from which Carboni, Sosnitskiy, Mager and Wirtgen have just been dropped - 2'52".
This is how things look like from Wirtgen's perspective. Geoghegan Hart, Kruijswijk, Salinas and Valls are in difficulties as well, while Kritskiy is still chasing after Taaramäe - who has just joined group Barguil!
So let's again take a look at the full timings - as this will be easier to get an overview:
Faglum Karlsson
+ 1'13"
Vosekalns
Kennaugh
Teklehaimanot
+ 1'31"
Taaramäe
Barguil
Chiarello
Schleck
Brenes
Karnulin
Iino
+ 2'16"
Spilak
Kritskiy
Amador
Shikai
Haig
Bongiorno
Arndt
Carapaz
Talansky
Kirsch
Nesset
Malecki
Vervaeke
Ciccone
Majka
Bernal
So only one single helper remains by Malecki's side - but the Pole is still looking amazingly strong! Where does he take that strength from?
Kritskiy hasn't really accelerated, but he simply rides away from Spilak! Can the Russian catch Taaramäe to retain his chances of winning his first ever GT?
This shot gives us a great overview of the situation as Faglum Karlsson reaches the final 3 kilometers! Don't be fooled by the 5km arc on the top left - it's completely misplaced, 3km is the correct indication!
Kennaugh and Teklehaimanot are about to be caught by Barguil and Schleck, who have already reeled in Vosekalns.
Taaramäe has Chiarello on his wheel, followed by Brenes, Karnulin and Iino.
Kritskiy has almost caught up with this group, whereas Spilak is leading the chasing "peloton" - still including Maglia Rosa Malecki!
What will happen on those final 3,000 meters? Will Cervinia be decisive for the GC once again?
It's still a long way to go for the Swedish champion - but at least Faglum Karlsson will soon leave behind the steeper slopes!
Behind, the big merger has happened, with the group now being led by Barguil. Kritskiy is still sitting somewhere in between, as he doesn't seem to be able to really make the catch, and Spilak isn't able to catch up with the Russian, either!
Malecki is dropped! Spilak's pace eventually was too much for the Pole, who now has to fight for every second!
Bongiorno is on the wrong side of this split, too, while Haig, Amador, Bernal, Nesset, Kirsch, Arndt, Shikai and teammate Talansky are able to stay with Spilak!
Kritskiy has finally caught the chasing group - but in the meantime, Taaramäe, Barguil and Chiarello have already left them behind! And with slightly more than 2 kilometers remaining, they are dangerously closing in on Faglum Karlsson! Can the Swede hold on?
Let's just look at the current timings - especially the gap to Malecki will be interesting:
Faglum Karlsson
+ 19"
Taaramäe
Barguil
Chiarello
+ 46"
Kritskiy
Schleck
Brenes
Karnulin
Vosekalns
Iino
Kennaugh
Teklehaimanot
+ 1'26"
Spilak
Amador
Shikai
Haig
Bongiorno
Arndt
Talansky
Kirsch
Nesset
Bernal
+ 2'28"
Malecki
Carapaz
Majka
Bongiorno has caught up with group Spilak again - but more interesting is the 2'09" gap between Taaramäe and Malecki! Remember that the difference was 3'02" before the stage - so the Estonian still needs to gain anohter 53 seconds! But let's not forget that there are bonus seconds for the first three riders of the stage - these might even be decisive!
Here we have group Spilak again, and indeed, Bongiorno has just caught Shikai's wheel - but the Chinese is in troubles himself! Attrition is clearly kicking in now - let's see who blows up completely on these last kilometers!
The roads are now clearly flatter, which might be what saves Faglum Karlsson's stage win! However, Taaramäe is fighting for every second, while Barguil - who did a great job earlier on - is now just trying to hold on!
For Chiarello, this didn't quite work out, as he loses contact just at the end of the steeper slopes!
Behind, we can see Kritskiy pulling Kennaugh and Teklehaimanot after him - the breakaway riders are doing a great job today!
Shikai is dropped! Together with Bongiorno and Bernal, the 5th of the GC couldn't keep up anymore. He has a 2 minute advantage on Barguil though - can he defend that?
Meanwhile, Kritskiy has left behind the group and is about to catch Chiarello; he's hidden by the spectators, so we can just see him partially.
Kirsch and Karnulin have caught up with Kennaugh and Teklehaimanot, while Brenes is struggling to do the same.
When looking at the timings, the gap between Taaramäe and Malecki has only very slightly grown, to 2'18" now - but the seconds keep ticking down for the Pole!
1,500 meters to go! Faglum Karlsson has to hope that his chasers have spent too much effort to open the gap, so he might still have a chance of getting a highly deserved stage win!
Kritskiy has now passed Chiarello - but it's still a job well done by the Brazilian today! The Russian, however, will want to close that gap to Taaramäe - else he could lose the Giro today!
Spilak has meanwhile caught all bar the current Top 5 of the stage - and in the process has dropped his teammate Talansky! Arndt has lost contact as well.
In group Spilak, we have the following riders:
Spilak
Amador
Haig
Schleck
Brenes
Kirsch
Nesset
Karnulin
Vosekalns
Iino
Kennaugh
Teklehaimanot
Geoghegan Hart has caught up with Malecki, who is looking really tired now! Can his British teammate pull him up the mountain fast enough to defend the Maglia Rosa one more time?
Ohhh, that's heartbreaking! Under the Fiamma Rossa, Faglum Karlsson is caught by Taaramäe and Barguil! However, these two are looking pretty tired as well - maybe there's still a chance for the Swede?
Kritskiy has meanwhile dropped Chiarello - but he's still 28" behind! If he timed his effort right, however, he might almost close that gap!
When speaking of gaps: Malecki is now 2'34" behind Taaramäe - should the Estonian win the stage, the gap in the GC would be down to 8 seconds currently! But even 28" isn't a comfortable margin by any means!
Taaramäe is leading all the way, while Barguil is just sitting behind. Of course, the Estonian is still fighting for every second - but will he have enough left to fight for the stage win as well?
Faglum Karlsson now takes 3rd position - but can he hold on? Or even outsprint the others?
With 500m to go, the leading riders haven't launched their sprint yet - unlike Kritskiy, who's now definitely closing in! But has he launched too early or just timed it right?
300 meters to the line - and as Taaramäe and Barguil start sprinting, it's over for Faglum Karlsson! With Kritskiy closing in fast, the Swede might even miss out on the stage podium!
With 200 meters to go, Barguil has almost drawn level with Taaramäe - can the Frenchman capitalize on the fact that the Estonian did pretty much the whole work on the last three kilometers?
It seems so, as Barguil takes the lead with just 100 meters to go! Does Taaramäe have a final push left?
Behind, Faglum Karlsson is not even sprinting, with Kritskiy getting closer and closer! If only a reporter didn't need to be neutral...
Warren Barguil wins the queen stage of the 2020 Giro d'Italia in Cervinia! It was a gutsy move when he followed Chiarello's attack rather early on the climb - and then he was the only one able to hold on with Rein Taaramäe, who has to settle for 2nd.
But the Estonian might take over the Maglia Rosa instead - the clock is ticking now for Malecki! With the 12 bonus seconds for Taaramäe, the Pole can afford to lose 2'50" today!
Kritskiy indeed seems to have launched his sprint too early, as he has now stopped sprinting as well. Will this finally save Faglum Karlsson a podium spot?
But let's take a look at what happens further behind, too! Chiarello has cracked, while Kirsch, Karnulin, Haig and Spilak seem to have slightly more left!
Amador has lost touch on the final kilometer as well, with Kennaugh, Schleck and Teklehaimanot behind.
And the next group is entering the closing 1,000 meters as well - Brenes, Iino, Vosekalns, Nesset and Arndt. Talansky has just been dropped from this group, with Bongiorno, Shikai and Bernal following each one on his own!
Now, that's definitely not optimal! Geoghegan Hart could actually go faster than Malecki - but the Maglia Rosa simply can't keep up with his helper's pace! It will be a close call for the leader's jersey, so this situation might actually hurt a lot!
Marcus Faglum Karlsson makes it! With his last ounce of strength, he crosses the line to take 3rd place - a great performance, without any doubt! But the climb was just one kilometer too long for him... Still, he'll surely move up in the GC, losing only 26" today!
Timofey Kritskiy was on a good day as well, but he just missed out on the decisive moves. He was chasing all the way - but failed to catch Taaramäe and Barguil. He loses 35" today, not gaining any time bonuses. Which means that he's now more than a minute behind Taaramäe in the GC - but can he at least overtake Malecki?
Further back, we have a duel Karnulin vs. Kirsch, with the breakaway rider doing a great job! Chiarello is still slightly ahead, but given his position on the bike he doesn't even think of sprinting.
Surprisingly, Denys Karnulin was clearly faster than Alex Kirsch in the end. The Ukranian loses 51", while the clock stops at 1'03" for the Luxembourger and William Chiarello, who takes 7th.
It's then a very close call between Jack Haig and Simon Spilak for 8th - with the Aussie winning this duel by an inch or two.
These two lose 1'14", so Haig should still be the first challenger of Taaramäe and Kritskiy - but he'll likely stay quite far behind Malecki, who's now on the final kilometer as well. So there's some more work to do tomorrow!
Andrei Amador then takes the final Top 10 spot of the day, losing 1'24".
The officials award the same time as for Amador to Andy Schleck, Tim Kennaugh and Daniel Teklehaimanot, i.e. a 1'24" deficit. They take 11th to 13th.
We then have another very close finish between Sigurd Nesset and Tomoyuki Iino. The officials tell us the Norwegian was slightly ahead, hence taking 14th. The Japanse picks up the final point of this stage.
Nikias Arndt, Andris Vosekalns and Gregory Brenes are the other members of this group, being 1'57" down. Let's see if Nesset is able to hold onto his Top 10 with this result!
Andrew Talansky (+ 2'19") and Francesco Bongiorno (+ 2'31") then round off today's Top 20.
Malecki only has 17 seconds left to cross the line - else we'll have a new GC leader tonight!
Shikai finishes 2'46" behind Barguil - with Malecki having still 400 meters to go, it's unlikely he'll be here in four seconds!
And indeed, as Carapaz and Bernal cross the line 3'01" later than today's stage winner, Malecki's days in the Maglia Rosa are over!
He might even lose some additional seconds, as his gap to teammate Geoghegan Hart is quite large! The Brit is clocked at 3'20".
Malecki takes 25th place today, losing 3'27" to Barguil. He put in yet another amazing fight - but today, it wasn't quite enough. His 15th day in the Maglia Rosa - and the 14th consecutive day - was likely the last of the race. Nonetheless, hats off - and the race still is far from over for him!
By the way, finishing just behind him is Majka.
Another rider who couldn't keep up with his best domestique is Valls, who finishes 29th (+ 3'59"), 15 seconds behind Ciccone. He'll likely drop a few spots in the GC today.
Vervaeke, Wirtgen and Salinas are next on the road, the latter duo losing already more than 5 minutes.
But it' still not as bad as what happened - once again - to Reis today. The Portuguese loses a lot of time on the final 10 kilometers - crossing the line 8'43" after Barguil. Will he be able to explain what happened today? It's just a real shame for a rider who should have competed for a Top 10 at least!
It was an even worse day for Aru - who lost 17'59"! It's questionable if that was just due to the legs, or if the rider's attitude wasn't top-notch, either...
At the end of the day, we have to say goodbye to one more rider: Yatsevich still has almost 4 kilometers of climbing to go as the clock turns red, meaning that he misses out on the time limit. All others had at least 15 minutes to spare, so nobody else was really in danger.
While we were waiting for the last riders to arrive - or to be taken out of the race - we had plenty of time to calculate the new GC, which we will present shortly. But first, let's celebrate the winner of the day!
And this is Warren Barguil! We know it: the further we are into a GT, the stronger the Frenchman - which he clearly showed today! He was clever enough to follow the right move, and then he was strong enough to keep Taaramäe's wheel all the way. The final sprint was an easy one for him - and his first ever GT stage win is his reward! Well done!
Rein Taaramäe surely won't be too unhappy about his 2nd place. He had one goal today - which was gaining as many seconds as possible on Maglia Rosa Malecki. And he did a great job, as we'll see in a moment! It's his 3rd podium of the race, clearly showing who's the boss!
For Marcus Faglum Karlsson, 3rd place must be bittersweet. Bitter, because he was clearly the strongest rider from the breakaway group, going solo for 2/3 of the final climb - just to be caught under the red kite! But it's sweet as well, as he has to be glad to have at least saved that one! And it made him move up in the GC, too!
Here's our new GC leader, finally receiving the Maglia Rosa on the third-to-last day - Rein Taaramäe! The Estonian was one of the top favorites to win this race, but Kamil Malecki was a worthy rival, being much harder to beat than anyone ever expected!
Finally, Taaramäe found the right moment to attack today, with the Pole cracking little later - but still sitting in 2nd place! Malecki only trails by 37 seconds - who knows what still can happen tomorrow... But losing the Maglia Rosa on the second-last mountain stage surely hurts!
Timofey Kritskiy - another one of those top favorites - missed out on Taaramäe's attack, and then just wasn't able to fully close the gap any more. And so, he still keeps his 3rd place, now 1'15" behind Taaramäe - and 38" behind Malecki. He still has the opportunity of winning this Giro as well - but he'll need to step up quite a bit tomorrow!
But whereas the Russian can be expected to gain at least these 38" on Malecki, THE question of the day will be if the Pole can defend his podium spot tomorrow! Haig didn't have the best of days, either - and still trails Malecki by 3'16"! This looks like a gigantic task for the Aussie - which surely grants us a very tense final mountain stage!
Let's look at the current Top 20, their gaps and position differences relative to yesterday's GC (green numbers mean places gained, red numbers are places lost):
1.
Rein Taaramäe
82h06'40"
1
2.
Kamil Malecki
+ 37"
1
3.
Timofey Kritskiy
+ 1'15"
0
4.
Jack Haig
+ 3'53"
0
5.
Warren Barguil
+ 5'06"
1
6.
Chen Shikai
+ 6'03"
1
7.
William Chiarello
+ 6'56"
0
8.
Andrei Amador
+ 7'59"
0
9.
Simon Spilak
+ 8'08"
0
10.
Sigurd Nesset
+ 9'03"
0
11.
Alex Kirsch
+ 9'45"
3
12.
Andrew Talansky
+ 9'45"
1
13.
Tim Kennaugh
+ 9'59"
0
14.
Marcus Faglum Karlsson
+ 11'13"
3
15.
Rafael Valls
+ 12'01"
3
16.
Francesco Bongiorno
+ 12'38"
0
17.
Egan Bernal
+ 12'47"
2
18.
Gregory Brenes
+ 13'25"
0
19.
Andy Schleck
+ 13'30"
0
20.
Richard Antonio Carapaz
+ 15'47"
2
The only rider who dropped out of the Top 20 was Wirtgen, who is 21st now. The biggest winners today definitely are Kirsch and Faglum Karlsson - but given the huge gaps on Taaramäe, a lot of these riders could be on the attack tomorrow, shaking up the GC one final time!
In the points standings, however, there will be not much shaking up tomorrow. Arnaud Demare is still leading with a good margin of 42 points ahead of Rein Taaramäe - who would need the Frenchman to miserably fail on the last stage, while himself scoring some decent points. This doesn't sound like a very realistic scenario...
Mathieu van der Poel is still 3rd, 69 points behind Demare. However, Contreras in 10th place is only 10 points further down, so while 1st and 2nd seem to be rather safe (depending on tomorrow's results, of course), a lot could still happen in the fight for 3rd!
We did expect a lot to happen in the fight for the Maglia Azzurra - but we were clearly disappointed in this respect. Although Winner Anacona joined the breakaway group, he didn't gain a single point and still sits in 3rd place, 14 points behind Aleksandar Roman. Richard Antonio Carapaz didn't score either and still trails by 2 points.
With the last 30 points on the table tomorrow - including the Giro's sole HC climb Colle delle Finestre - only 8 riders still have at least theoretical chances of winning the KoM standings - but only the Top 3 seem to be seriously in contention, all others needing points at the finish line as well.
We definitely had a lot of days where Kamil Malecki looked happier - and less tired - than today, but hey, this guy can still be extremely proud of what he has achieved so far - and it isn't over!
In fact, his chances of defending the Maglia Bianca are huge, given his 12'10" advantage on Egan Bernal! Tom Wirtgen is even five minutes further down! With what we saw from him so far, it doesn't seem very likely that someone else will receive this jersey in Milano - but it's still going to be a hard fight again tomorrow!
Even though they lost the Maglia Rosa today, Gazelle again did an absolutely stunning job today! In fact, their worst rider on today's stage was Bibby in 38th place - what an amazing team effort!
Only EA Vesuvio were able to gain some time on them today - and it's really just "some", as it was a single second! The Luxembourgers move up from 5th to 3rd, being 22'27" down.
Still in 2nd place, but with "only" the 6th place of the day, losing over 7 minutes, are Aegon - Peroni. Their deficit is 21'16" - and they'll have to fight hard to keep this 2nd place!
Rein Taaramäe hence is one mountain stage away from his career GT-slam, and the only one who might still stop him seems to be Timofey Kritskiy. Let's see if Malecki can hold on to the podium - which would be one of the major sensations in MG history! Haig currently is 3 minutes behind the Pole - and it would take a huge effort to kick him out of the Top 3!
In any case, tomorrow will be another brutal stage - with likely a lot of great climbers on the attack again! Stay tuned for the last mountain stage of the 2020 Giro d'Italia - including the Cima Coppi!
Giro d'Italia 
