Today’s stage: Dumoulin finishes 3min 22sec behind Froome. There are some sums to be done before we know how much Froome’s lead will be tomorrow. He won bonus seconds for finishing today’s stage in first place.
Challenging Miguel Ángel López for the white jersey, Richard Carapaz nicks the six bonus seconds by coming second and is followed over the line by Pinot and then Lopez. Having done all the work on the chase, Tom Dumoulin gets no bonus seconds whatsoever. Chris Froome will begin tomorrow’s penultimate stage in the pink after one of the great cycling performances. That was an epic stage.
Having been on his own for 80 kilometres, Chris Froome wins the stage and puts himself in pole position to win the Giro d’Italia. He started this morning in fourth place, 3min 22sec off the lead. He finishes with the race lead. We’ll let you know how much he leads by just as soon as it’s confirmed. That was an astonishing ride - arguably the finest of his career. He wraps up the stage win in a time of 5hr 12min 26sec and punches the air in triumph as he crosses the line.
1km to go: As is customary on such occasions, there are a number of drunken gobshites lining the road, but Froome has passed under the one-kilometre to go kite and is now on a section of road protected by race barriers.
1km to go: Stage 19 enters its knockings and Froome is out of the saddle on the fairly narrow, spectator-lined road leading to the finish. The gap is 3min 18sec.
2km to go: Froome maintains the 3min 14sec to Dumoulin that will put the Sky rider in the maglia rosa on the penultimate day of this year’s Giro. Tomorrow’s stage is tough and it will be interesting to see how much, if anything, today’s 80-kilometre solo effort has taken out of him.
3.2km to go: In the white jersey, Lopez attacks off the front of the three-man Dumoulin group and Carapaz takes off in hot pursuit, leaving Tom Dumoulin isolated. Froome leads Dumoulin by 3min 08sec.
4km to go: Froome pedals onwards and upwards to the stage finish at Bardonecchia. Behind him, Thibaut Pinot has opened a gap of four or five seconds on the three-man group led by Tom Dumoulin. Dumoulin is with Miguel Ángel López and Richard Carapaz, who are fighting it out for the best young rider’s white jersey.
5km to go: Thibaut Pinot leaves Tom Dumoulin behind, but the man in second place on GC is able to regroup and rejoin the two riders duking it out for the white jersey. Froome leads the stage by 3min 11sec from Thibaut Pinot, who has opened a small seven or eight-second gap to Dumoulin.
6km to go: Froome’s relentless solo effort continues and tom Dumoulin cracks. He’s now paddling at the back of his own small group and in obvious distress.
8km to go: Chris Froome is about the hit the steep section of the stiff final climb. Behind him, Tom Dumoulin is doing all the hard work at the front of the four-man posse, but isn’t closing the gap. Remember that Froome has been on his own for 80 kilometres - that’s some effort.
9km to go: The race leaders have taken pity on Simon Yates and stopped giving updates on his time a fair while ago. He was nearly 20 minutes off the pace and struggling very badly the last time we got an update.
10km to go: Froome continues to increase his lead with a fine solo effort. He passes under the 10km-to-go kite with a lead of 3min 34sec over the four-man group led by Tom Dumoulin and Thibaut Pinot.
As things stand: Chris Froome is the virtual leader of this year’s Giro d’Italia and has a 33-second lead over Tom Dumoulin. Thibaut Pinot, who has been working hard in Pinot’s small group of riders has moved onto the podium and is 4min 30sec behind Froome.
14km to go: Dimension Data’s Ben O’Connor has abandoned after crashing into some barriers on the most recent descent. It looked a sore one, but he got back on his bike only for his injuries to get the better of him a short time later. It’s a shame for him as he’d been riding an excellent Giro.
16km to go: The gap between Froome and the Dumoulin group is 3min 08sec and there’s one big climb left today - to the finish line at the Cat 1 Bardonecchia.
20km to go: Froome increases the gap to 3min 08sec after a splendid ride, while the volume of chippy correspondence from Sky fanboys and girls increases in my inbox. It’s like a cult. A big cult of Blinkered Whataboutery.
Personally, I have no particularly strong opinions one way or the other on whether or not Froome should be in this year’s Giro or not, but the evasiveness of his team, a team founded on transparency, certainly does him no favours when it comes to ladling out sympathy or giving riders the benefit of the doubt.
Whatever your thoughts on his unresolved Salbutamol case, it’s been an epic stage in a fascinating Giro and both Chris Froome and Tom Dumoulin deserve immense credit for two brilliant rides that have set us up for an epic denouement.
Dumoulin having to do all the work earlier with Thibaut Pinot and Richard Carapaz behind him. Photograph: Tim de Waele/Getty Images
An email from Jorrit Kors in the Netherlands: “Regarding the email from Christopher Lawton - there are no questions,” writes Jorrit. “Froome should never have been allowed to compete. It is a joke. Go Tom!”
Before the opening stage of this year’s race in Jerusalem, Dumoulin had plenty to say about Froome’s unresolved salbutamol case dating back to last year’s Vuelta. Froome is still fighting to clear his name after an adverse analytical finding for the asthma drug last September. “It’s not good for cycling in general that it’s not solved,” Dumoulin told Sky News. “Everybody is a bit uncertain. If he wins now what will happen if he gets a positive [test result] afterwards?Does he lose his Vuelta title from last year and does he also lose his Giro title? There’s so much uncertainty, nobody benefits, also not Chris Froome. He has the right to race here, it’s his choice to make. It’s not up to me.”
32km to go: Froome extends the gap to 2min 58sec and becomes the virtual race leader. He can’t win this year’s Giro today, but he’s put himself in the box-seat with just one day of serious racing to go.
An email from R Williams: “What does the Froome-hating Guardian have to say now?” he asks. “He’s a class act and his performance today is breathtaking.” Breath-taking enough to require a toot on an inhaler?
Froome forced to take evasive action: Anyone who has ever attended one of Sir David Brailsford’s press conferences or seen him appear in front of a government select committee will know that Team Sky are masters of evasion and for once it proves very beneficial, as Chris Froome is forced to swerve around a crashed race motorcycle while cycling through a dark tunnel. Luckily, the driver of the motorbike appears to be OK. That’s the second close, motorcycle-related shave Froome has had today - on the descent of the Finestre, a motorcycle bearing a cameraman had to brake suddenly to avoid knocking him off his bike.
An email from Christopher Lawton: “Exciting as this is surely there are going to be a lot of questions now around whether Froome should be competing,” he says. “While we are not yet in Armstrong territory the image of cycling does not necessarily benefit from Froome’s ride.”
45km to go: Froome crests the Sestriere, taking the King of the Mountains maglia azzurra jersey from Simon Yates in the process. Simon Yates has lost over 20 minutes and his hopes of winning this year’s Giro today. With Yates no longer in the picture, Dumoulin is the virtual race leader but Froome only needs to put another nine seconds to him and he’ll take that honour as well.
46km to go: This is a remarkable effort by Chris Froome, who is approaching the summit of the Sestriere and continues to put time into Tom Dumoulin, extending the gap to 2min 38sec. Those in the Dumoulin group appear to be suffering and are summoning their cars to furnish them with food and drink.
This screen grab from L’Equipe’s coverage of Stage 19 shows a fan dressed as a surgeon goading Chris Froome with
a giant Ventolin inhaler. Photograph: L'Equipe
50km to go: Chris Froome continues his ascent of the Sestriere with a lead of 2min 08sec over the chasing group being led by Tom Dumoulin. Froome is on his own, Dumoulin has the support of Thibaut Pinot, Miguel Ángel López, Sebastien Reichenback and Richard Carapaz. Carapaz and Lopez are duking it out for the white jersey of best young rider and have not been contributing to the chase. In virtual terms, Dumoulin is the leader of this year’s Giro with a 44-second lead over Chris Froome.
55km to go: Chris Froome takes some food and drink on board as he prepares to hit the slopes again, en route to the third big climb of the day, the Cat 3 Sestriere. Froome leads the Dumoulin group by 1min 53sec. The Dumoulin group leads the Pozzovivo by 1min 10sec. Froome, Dumoulin or Pozzovivo will win this year’s Giro d’Italia.
57km to go: After a descent that often bordered on the downright reckless, Chris Froome has a stage lead of 1min 50sec over Tom Dumoulin - he put a minute into his nearest pursuers on the downhill of the Finestre. Simon Yates, bless him on a horrible day, has just gone over the summit of the Finestre and is more than 17 minutes off the pace being set by Froome.
An email from Marco Grandi: “I am sorry to see Yates suffer, but its a great payback towards the arrogant crew in the comment sections who so many times forget that this is a three-week race,” he writes. Arrogance? In the Guardian comments section? Surely not.
69km to go: For the first time in three climbs up the Finestre in the Giro, the race leader has failed to hang on to the maglia rosa. And how - Simon Yates is now 13min 16sec behind today’s stage leader Chris Froome, who is currently negotiating the descent. Yates could conceivably lose half an hour or more today.
Behind Froome, virtual race leader Tom Dumoulin is in hot pursuit, in the company of Thibaut Pinot, Miguel Ángel López, Sebastien Reichenback and Richard Carapaz. Froome’s lead on the stage is 1min 18sec.
71 km to go: Tom Dumoulin is organising the downhill chase behind Froome and it’s interesting that he’s in the company of Thibaut Pinot, who is a notoriously poor descender. As they crested the summit of the Finestre, Dumoulin gestured to Pinot as if to say: “Follow me and I’ll guide you down”.
73km to go: Tom Dumoulin is being forced to do all the hard graft at the front of the five-man group that is 38 seconds behind Froome. Chris Froome crests the summit, the highest point of this year’s race and begis a very technical descent. The road is narrow, it’s wet in places and there’s quite a scary drop to the right.
74km to go: While there seems little point in continuing to monitor Simon Yates’s grisly demise, there is something grimly fascinating about watching a Grand Tour leader’s challenge disintegrate in such spectacular fashion. He’s now 10min 30sec off the pace being set by stage leader Chris Froome. Froome leads Tom Dumoulin towards the summit of the Finestre - the gap between the pair is 37 seconds and there are 73 kilometres to go.
76km to go: Chris Froome leads the stage by 40-seconds from Tom Dumoulin, his main rival for this year’s Giro. Dumoulin is in a four-man group with Thibaut Pinot, Miguel Ángel López and Richard Carapaz. In the big news of the day, Simon Yates is nine minutes behind Chris Froome on the road today and the gulf is getting just bigger and bigger. It’s been a nightmare day for the man in the pink jersey. don’t forget, there’s a long, long way to go in today’s stage.
77km to go: Simon Yates seems to riding through treacle and the gap between him and stage leader Chris Froome is heading towards the eight-minute mark. On a remarkable day’s racing, Chris Froome has a 34-second lead over the chasing group of four riders including Tom Dumoulin. Froome needs to gain 2min 54sec on Dumoulin if he’s to be in pink tomorrow. They continue the ascent to the summit of the finestre and they’re high above the snow line.
79km to go: How things stand: still on the monster climb of the day, Chris Froome is alone in front. Behind him, Tom Dumoulin, Thibaut Pinot, Sebastien Reichenback and Richard Carapaz can still Froome in the distance - his lead is 17 seconds. Domenico Pozzovivo, third on the GC at the start of racing today, has also been dropped. In the pink jersey, Simon Yates is now five minutes down.
