For more than 70 kilometres Chris Harper dared to dream, but in the end Jonas Vingegaard was too strong for him, as he has been for everyone else in the Giro d"Italia.
The Dane claimed his fourth stage win of the race, his first wearing pink, after racing away in the Swiss Alps making the 11.6-km category one climb to the summit finish look like a training ride.
Yet for a while it could have been victory for a Victorian with Harper (Pinarello–Q36.5) looking as if he might emulate last year's Giro stage win on the penultimate day when he rode alone into the ski resort of Sestriere.
The 31-year-old was part of a breakaway that formed around 80-90 km from the finish and gradually came down to four, then three, then with less than 10km to go, just Harper.
