With three days of riding left e Giro, today’s stage was going to be absolutely pivotal. The 162km route took in two climbs – the fearsome and intimidating Colle dell’Agnello before crossing the border into France and making the ascent to the finish in Risoul. Today was a day when a good strategy was essential, but more importantly, that riders had the legs to see those strategies through. Starting the day sixth in the GC, Rafal Majka spent another day among the GC contenders while the Maglia Rosa lost his jersey on the final climb. Finishing the day in fifth, Rafal goes into the final mountain stage fifth in the GC.
Snow and suffering was what the riders had to look forward to. With almost three weeks of hard, fast-paced, attacking racing in their legs, it didn’t matter how good a climber they were, the climb of the Colle dell’Agnello – the Giro’s ‘Cima Coppi’ – the highest point of this year’s race – was going to hurt. Dominating the course profile, the climb was a little over 20km in length and with maximum gradients of 15% in not one, but two points of the climb. On the upper slopes, the average gradient hit 9.3% over a 10km stretch. The climb was not only hard, but high as well. Heavy snow had fallen on the top slopes in the days beforehand, meaning conditions would be cold and the freezing temperatures would only add to the hurt.
At the start of the day and the moment the flag dropped, the attacks came. Almost every team wanted to have one of their riders up the road today, but every time an escape attempt was made, the peloton pulled it back in. After more than 70km of racing and half the day gone, a break finally went clear. In this group of 28 were Jesús Hernández and Evgeny Petrov, and quickly the gap went out – reaching nearly five minutes after 95km of racing had been completed.
After a long wait for the break to form, Sport Director, Tristan Hoffman, was pleased to see a strong Tinkoff presence there. “There was a long fight of nearly 70km for a break to go but when it did we had two guys there, Jesús and Evgeny.”
“The plan was to have them up the road if the attacks came from behind and this worked out well with Jesús going over the top of the climb then waiting for Rafal behind to help him chase the front. They chased together for 45km, and got the lead down to around 10-seconds, but couldn’t close it.”
On such a testing climb, a big escape group was going to struggle to hold it together, and almost immediately riders began to struggle, with many being dropped off the back to be swallowed up by the peloton, while others attacked – eager to take the Cima Coppi prize for the first rider to the highest point of the race.
As the escapees made their way up the Colle dell’Agnello the weather came in and the breakaway was surrounded by fog. The higher up they went, the more the snowfalls of the previous few days became apparent. Walled in by huge banks of ice and snow, the temperature was freezing, with riders’ breath hanging in the air.
As the GC group behind hit the upper slopes, it was clear the effort was affecting the peloton, with riders being shed from the back and some of the favourites being left behind. As the steepest slopes approached, Rafal Majka was joined by his teammates to keep him safe as the road hit its toughest gradients. With riders dropping off the pace, it was only Rafal and a group of three left of the GC contenders, although at this point the Tinkoff leader was slowing to reach the summit at his own pace, before taking on the downhill.
With so much to race for, riders were pushing themselves and their equipment to the very limit. With just over 50km to go, the Maglia Rosa crashed into a snow bank after running wide on a bend on the descent, while further down the descent, Katusha’s Ilnur Zakarin crashed badly, forcing his retirement from the race. As Rafal negotiated his way down safely, he formed a small group to pull back time on the escapees from the GC group, who had around 30-seconds on them, with 32km to go.
Making the most of the descent, Rafal’s group put more time into the Maglia Rosa and reduced the gap on the GC group to 20 seconds with 16km to go – shortly before the beginning of the final climb to Risoul. As the group made its way steadily down the Colle dell’Agnello, the weather cleared, giving way to stunning scenery on the beautiful mountain roads.
With 10km of the day to go, the leaders hit the final climb of the day, leaving the Maglia Rosa trailing. Rafal knew this final climb well, having won here at the 2014 Tour de France. Sitting just over a minute behind the lead group, Rafal’s group was in turn around 1’30” ahead of the pink jersey group. With the race leader likely to lose his grip not he race, another shakeup of the GC standings was imminent, with Rafal’s group holding and then increasing that gap as the climb reached its halfway point. As the stage winner crossed the line, the timer started. Rafal crossed the line in fifth, reclaiming fifth in the GC overall.
It was an exceptionally difficult day coming towards the end of a long race, but after a difficult start, Rafal Majka felt stronger as the day went on. “I suffered in the first climb a bit, but then got stronger in the second climb. It has been a tough, long Giro with strong adversaries, but we still have another day ahead where differences can be made before the finish.”
Hoffman was pleased with the Tinkoff leader’s performance today, given that he had three weeks of racing behind him, and looked to tomorrow’s stage. “Rafal did a good race, he didn’t have super legs, otherwise he would have been there when the attack came on the first climb, but today I think we saw today the race is not over. If tomorrow the race explodes like today, then things can change again. We are still racing for a podium spot until the end.”
If today’s stage saw the race reach its highest point, tomorrow’s stage is without doubt one of the most challenging. The last day in the mountains, the race is likely to be decided here – and with three first category climbs on the route from Guillestre to Sant’Anna di Vinadio, the stage will either make or break the GC contenders’ races. Spending much of the day in France, the steepest climb is the Col de Vars, with a maximum gradient of 13%, while the toughest is likely to be the Colle della Lombarda, which starts 31km from the stage’s finish and goes on for a little under 20km. With the finish only two days away, Hoffman was happy with the team effort and level of commitment shown by the riders. “We have had some sickness and some crashes but we have still nine riders here, which is really good, especially for this final week when it becomes really hard. Hopefully we can continue this to Turin.”
Stage Result
1. Vincenzo Nibali (ITA) Astana Pro Team 04:19:54
2. Mikel Nieve (SPA) Team Sky +00:00:51
3. Esteban Chaves (COL) Orica-GreenEdge +00:00:53
4. Diego Ulissi (ITA) Lampre-Merida +00:01:02
5. Rafal Majka (POL) Tinkoff +00:02:14
34. Jesús Hernández (SPA) Tinkoff +00:14:12
38. Pawel Poljanski (POL) Tinkoff +00:15:55
55. Ivan Rovny (RUS) Tinkoff Team +00:21:09
72. Jay McCarthy (AUS) Tinkoff +00:23:50
91. Pavel Brutt (RUS) Tinkoff +00:27:42
92. Manuele Boaro (ITA) Tinkoff +00:29:40
94. Evgeny Petrov (RUS) Tinkoff +00:30:38
133. Matteo Tosatto (ITA) Tinkoff +00:36:31
GC After Stage 19
1. Esteban Chaves (COL) Orica-GreenEdge 78:14:20
2. Vincenzo Nibali (ITA) Astana Pro Team +00:00:40
3. Steven Kruijswijk (NED) Team LottoNL-Jumbo +00:01:05
4. Alejandro Valverde (SPA) Movistar Team +00:01:48
5. Rafal Majka (POL) Tinkoff +00:03:59
33. Ivan Rovny (RUS) Tinkoff +01:24:07
38. Pawel Poljanski (POL) Tinkoff +01:35:56
47. Manuele Boaro (ITA) Tinkoff +01:54:13
52. Jesús Hernández (SPA) Tinkoff +02:07:06
80. Jay McCarthy (AUS) Tinkoff +02:57:59
82. Evgeny Petrov (RUS) Tinkoff +02:59:00
83. Pavel Brutt (RUS) Tinkoff +03:00:24
102. Matteo Tosatto (ITA) Tinkoff +03:21:09
Rafal Majka fought through the snow and ice at the top of the Colle dell’Agnello – the Giro’s Cima Coppi climb.
