Nicolas Prodhomme secured the day victory at the 19th heavy mountain stage over 166 kilometers from Biella to Champoluc. After 4950 meters of altitude with three mountain ratings of the first and one of the second and third category, the Frenchman triumphed with a courageous solo ride towards the end of the stage.
Isaac del Toro kept the Maglia Rosa, the pink jersey of the leader, as the second confidently, Richard Carapaz from Ecuador was third.
Steinhauser courageously
After just five kilometers, a five -member group with Georg Steinhauser and Jan Tratnik tried to break away from the field. While Steinhauser won a sprint rating, a chase group around Nico Denz, the day winner from Thursday, was formed by Van Aert and Daniel Felipe MartÃnez.
After about 54 kilometers, Denz had to let the top group steep – after the effort the previous day, the forces were used up. Christian Scaroni (XDS Astana Team) secured the first of three mountain ratings in the first category at the Col Tzecore, while the top position in the mountain ranking of team -mate Lorenzo Fortunato remained untouched.
Prodhomme: Almost 30 km solo in the mountains
Prodhomme from the Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale team made an attack 28 kilometers before the finish line and increased his distance to the group around the pink jersey to over one minute.
Rafal Majka perfectly protected his teammates and overall leaders in this group. When Bora driver Giulio Pellizzari, seventh of the overall ranking, started, the pole did not let the attacker pull the attacker. At the front, Prodhomme got the 40 points at the summit and, after the short descent, rolled 350 meters down to the 9.5 km long ascent to Antagnod. The pursuers guard each other and let the outlier pull.
Carapaz tests the form of del Toro
The back of the field largely kept the feet still – but only up to two kilometers before the last summit. Then Richard Carapaz attacked, but del Toro held strong against it.
The penultimate day of this year’s Giro has a big challenge for the drivers and especially for leader del Toro on Saturday with the 18.5 km long climb to the 2178 m high Colle Delle Finestre. The stage is 205 km long after almost three weeks and leads again over 4500 meters of altitude.