Only one tough stage remains before the peloton will travel to Rome.

Tre Cime di Lavaredo, the climb forever linked with Eddy Merckx’s incredible exploits at the 1968 Giro d’Italia, hosted the penultimate showdown between the GC favourites, setting a pecking order ahead of Saturday’s individual time trial. Back after nine years, the ascent took the riders to more than 2000 meters, with the finish line at Rifugio Auronzo, after 7.2 kilometers averaging 7.6%.

It was the fifth classified climb of the day, and Ilan Van Wilder punched above his weight for the umpteenth time at this edition, staying with the best until three kilometers to go, when the big moves came on the gruelling double-digit gradients. The Belgian dug deep once the elastic snapped and every man was for himself, and just like on the previous mountain stages, he impressed with his pacing and determination. This cemented his position in the general classification and brought him just a couple of seconds from 12th place, where Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious), the stage 19 winner, sits at the moment.

“Just like on the other days, I rode my own tempo once things began heating up in the kilometers to the finish, so I’m pretty satisfied with how things went. The last climb was just horrible, not very much to my liking, because it was too short and too steep, but I did my best. That’s another reason for me to be content at the end of the day. Now I will try to recover and give everything in the individual time trial, which is going to be very tough”, said Soudal Quick-Step’s 23-year-old, who is close to taking his best result in a Grand Tour.

 

Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele / Getty Images

Race details

1 Santiago Buitrago Sánchez
Bahrain - Victorious
5:28:07
2 Derek Gee
Israel - Premier Tech
0:51
3 Magnus Cort Nielsen
EF Education-EasyPost
1:46
4 Primož Roglič
Jumbo-Visma
1:46
5 Geraint Thomas
INEOS Grenadiers
1:49
6 João Almeida
UAE Team Emirates
2:09
7 Damiano Caruso
Bahrain - Victorious
2:09
8 Thymen Arensman
INEOS Grenadiers
2:09
9 Thibaut Pinot
Groupama - FDJ
2:16
10 Einer Augusto Rubio Reyes
Movistar Team
2:26
14 Ilan Van Wilder
Soudal - Quick Step
3:05
55 Pieter Serry
Soudal - Quick Step
23:16
1 Geraint Thomas
INEOS Grenadiers
81:55:47
2 Primož Roglič
Jumbo-Visma
0:26
3 João Almeida
UAE Team Emirates
0:59
4 Damiano Caruso
Bahrain - Victorious
4:11
5 Eddie Dunbar
Team Jayco AlUla
4:53
6 Thibaut Pinot
Groupama - FDJ
5:10
7 Thymen Arensman
INEOS Grenadiers
5:13
8 Lennard Kämna
BORA - hansgrohe
5:54
9 Andreas Leknessund
Team DSM
6:08
10 Laurens De Plus
INEOS Grenadiers
7:30
13 Ilan Van Wilder
Soudal - Quick Step
10:19
60 Pieter Serry
Soudal - Quick Step
2:30:34
1 Jonathan Milan
Bahrain - Victorious
215 pt
2 Derek Gee
Israel - Premier Tech
160 pt
3 Pascal Ackermann
UAE Team Emirates
95 pt
4 Michael Matthews
Team Jayco AlUla
93 pt
5 Toms Skujiņš
Trek - Segafredo
79 pt
6 Nico Denz
BORA - hansgrohe
77 pt
7 Magnus Cort Nielsen
EF Education-EasyPost
68 pt
8 Marius Mayrhofer
Team DSM
53 pt
9 Vincenzo Albanese
EOLO-Kometa
51 pt
10 Mark Cavendish
Astana Qazaqstan Team
51 pt
51 Ilan Van Wilder
Soudal - Quick Step
10 pt
1 Thibaut Pinot
Groupama - FDJ
228 pt
2 Derek Gee
Israel - Premier Tech
200 pt
3 Ben Healy
EF Education-EasyPost
164 pt
4 Davide Bais
EOLO-Kometa
144 pt
5 Einer Augusto Rubio Reyes
Movistar Team
118 pt
6 Santiago Buitrago Sánchez
Bahrain - Victorious
82 pt
7 Davide Gabburo
Green Project-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè
69 pt
8 João Almeida
UAE Team Emirates
61 pt
9 Aurélien Paret-Peintre
AG2R Citroën Team
56 pt
10 Filippo Zana
Team Jayco AlUla
54 pt
49 Ilan Van Wilder
Soudal - Quick Step
4 pt
1 João Almeida
UAE Team Emirates
81:56:46
2 Thymen Arensman
INEOS Grenadiers
4:14
3 Andreas Leknessund
Team DSM
5:09
4 Einer Augusto Rubio Reyes
Movistar Team
6:41
5 Santiago Buitrago Sánchez
Bahrain - Victorious
9:04
6 Ilan Van Wilder
Soudal - Quick Step
9:20
7 Filippo Zana
Team Jayco AlUla
30:07
8 Laurens Huys
Intermarché - Circus - Wanty
45:54
9 Brandon McNulty
UAE Team Emirates
1:06:03
10 Michel Hessmann
Jumbo-Visma
1:16:03
1 Bahrain - Victorious 245:35:12
2 INEOS Grenadiers 19:59
3 Jumbo-Visma 33:47
4 UAE Team Emirates 55:50
5 BORA - hansgrohe 1:17:46
6 AG2R Citroën Team 1:18:05
7 Astana Qazaqstan Team 1:26:02
8 Team Jayco AlUla 1:30:34
9 Israel - Premier Tech 1:48:45
10 EF Education-EasyPost 2:05:23

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