2016 Giro d'Italia Stage 20 Results & Recap
Stage 20 of the 2016 Giro d'Italia is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
Nibali secures maglia rosa on stage 20
Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) pulled off what seemed impossible just a few days ago and all but won the Giro d’Italia with a devastating performance on the final mountain stage.
The Italian started stage 20 to Sant'Anna di Vinadio 44 seconds down on maglia rosa Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEdge) but made up the deficit on the penultimate climb with a long-range attack after cracking all his major rivals, including the Colombian.
Rein Taaramae (Team Katusha) won the stage after surviving from the day’s early break, the Estonian somewhat making up for the fact that his team leader Ilnur Zakarin crashed out 24 hours previously.
The day, and ultimately the maglia rosa, belongs to Nibali, who came into the final mountain stages almost five minutes in arrears. He cut that to under a minute after winning stage 19 but on the penultimate stage before Turin’s flat encounter, he still had to crack Chaves, who had inherited pink after Steven Kruijswijk's (Team LottoNl-Jumbo) untimely stage 19 crash.
And Nibali pulled it off, first having his team set a near-relentless pace on the Colle della Lombarda, before attacking himself with two brutal accelerations. The first could only be matched by Chaves and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) but the second, while seated and with Chaves on his wheel, broke the Colombian’s brave resistance.
With constant time checks coming through the radio and with Tanel Kangert - who had been called back from the early break - for company Nibali slowly but surely opened a significant gap.
Chaves held on for as long as he could, and even had support from countryman Rigoberto Uran (Cannondale) but when the Orica rider failed to even follow that wheel, the writing was on the wall. A second group containing Rafa Majka and Bob Jungels caught Chaves just before the summit, giving a sliver of hope that Nibali could be curtailed on the descent but it wasn’t to be.
Spurred on by the tifosi as the race re-entered Italy, Nibali provided another memorable display. He crossed the line in sixth but Chaves was still losing ground and eventually came in nearly a minute and a half down and slipped to second, 52 seconds off Nibali’s new race lead.
Valverde, who has never quite been able to stamp any authority on this year’s Giro d’Italia at least demonstrated his skills in stage race management and limited his losses to Nibali. He briefly rode with Chaves and Uran before moving clear with the Cannondale rider before the summit of the Colle della Lombarda. The pair came in just 13 seconds adrift of Nibali – a fact that will tear at Orica’s hearts had their climber been able to only just hold them on the climb.
Steven Kruijswijk - who just two days ago looked almost unbreakable in the leader’s jersey - was unable to respond to Nibail’s surges. He looked comfortable when Tinkoff and then Astana, courtesy of Jakob Fuglsang and Michele Scarponi, set a furious tempo, but was found wanting when his rivals played out for the podium places.
He eventually dropped another place, to fourth, with Valverde moving up and onto the final podium position.
Just two days ago Nibali considered retiring from the race. With a day to go he is on course to win his second Giro, and his fourth Grand Tour.
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