Chris Froome speaks to Eurosport ...
“I don’t think I’ve ever attacked with 80km to go like that before on my own, and got all the way to the finish,” he said. “But the team did such a fantastic job to set that up for me. It was going to take something really special to try and first of all get rid of Simon, to get away from Dumoulin and Pozzovivo and to go from fourth to first.
“I wasn’t going to do that on the last climb alone so I had to try it from a long way back and Colle delle Finestre was the perfect place to do it - a gravel road which reminds me of the roads back in Africa.
“I tried to stay within my limits and stay within myself there, so hopefully we can finish this off tomorrow.”
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Overall standings: Chris Froome leads Tom Dumoulin in the General Classificaion by 40 seconds. Thibaut Pinot is in third place, 4min 17sec off the pace set by Froome.
Stage report: Chris Froome rides into the pink
Sean Ingle has filed this end-of-stage report on Chris Froome’s epic stage win.
Sean Ingle is in Italy for the Guardian ...
That was extraordinary by Froome - and fascinating to watch up close. But cycling’s charred history means that these days the extraordinary is, rightly or wrongly, accompanied by suspicion.
— Sean Ingle (@seaningle) May 25, 2018
Chris Froome wins stage 19
The Sky rider is in the race leader’s pink jersey and has a 40-second lead over Tom Dumoulin.
Froome speaks: “If felt like it,” he says, upon asked if this was the greatest ride of his career. “I don’t think I’ve ever attacked with 80km to go but the team did so well to set that up for me. To go from fourth to first is ... I wasn’t going to do that on the last climb so I had to do it from much further out. Let’s hope we can finish this off tomorrow.”
Stay tuned: As we wait for the official times, it’s worth noting that for all Chris Froome’s wonderful climbing today, it was his descent of the Finestre that was his most astonishing feat today. The man has his detractors but it took serious guts to do what he did on that downhill - at times it was bordering on the reckless and if he’d come off his bike he could have done himself a serious mischief. He went all-in on that descent and his dangerous gamble paid off.
Froome rides into pink with a stunning solo attack from 80km out in the Giro's queen stage. It's a result that is going to be greeted in a variety of different ways but it was quite extraordinary to witness
— Tom Cary (@tomcary_tel) May 25, 2018
"Chris Froome ... knockout performance!"
— Eurosport UK (@Eurosport_UK) May 25, 2018
Incredibly, the @TeamSky moves into pink after a sensational ride #Giro101 pic.twitter.com/AP5fdQsyiD
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.
Carapaz finishes second
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.
Chris Froome wins the 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.
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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.
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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.”
Froome the virtual race leader
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.
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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.
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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.
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.
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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.
Chris Froome attacks!
80 min: They’re on the gravel section of the Finestre and Chris Froome attacks! Tom Dumoulin isn’t able to follow and Froome is alone in front with 80 kilometres to go. Can he hold on?
81km to go: On Eurosport, people who know more about this kind of thing than I do, are saying that Simon Yates’s Mitchelton-Scott team need to limit the damage that’s being done to the race leader as much as they can until they get over the top of the Finestre and see what happens after that. My guess, looking at the pictures as the riders negotiate hairpin bend after hairpin bend, is that Yates’s goose is well and truly cooked as far as this year’s Giro is concerned.
While Tom Dumoulin is currently the virtual race leader, Chris Froome is looking very strong and could well attack at some stage today. He was 2min 54sec behind Dumoulin at the start of racing today.
83km to go: Astana’s Luis Leon Sanchez, who had been leading the stage only to be told to sit up by his team overlords, is now riding along with the Sky riders at the front of the field and has just taken an energy gel offered to him by Chris Froome. The gap back to Simon Yates, who continues the struggle to keep up with his own team-mates, is almost two minutes.
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Mmm, maybe I'd better put that triumphant Simon Yates profile on hold
— William Fotheringham (@willfoth) May 25, 2018
83km to go: SImon Yates is having a terrible time here and looks a certainty to lose the pink jersey. His team-mates are doing all they can to help him, hanging back to try and help him up the hill, offering him food and drink, but he’s struggling to even to stay on their wheels. They’re still not even halfway up the Colle delle Finestre - this afternoon could get a hell of a lot worse for Yates before they get better.
84km to go: Stage leader Luis Leon Sanchez has been instructed to sit up by his Astana’s directeur sportif, as his young team-mate Miguel Ángel López, currently in the young rider’s jersey, is struggling.
85km to go: Simon Yates looks to be in all sorts of bother as Team Sky ratchet up the pressure. Sergio Henao, Chris Froome, David De La Cruz and Wout Poels, among other Sky riders, are all to the fore as Yates falls further and further behind. Tom Dumoulin is upsides the Sky riders as the gap to Yates stretches to 22 seconds and counting.
Trouble for Yates
88km to go: We’re less than halfway up the Colle delle Finestre and race leader Simon Yates looks to be in big trouble! Sky have assembled the troops at the front of the pink jersey group, put the hammer down and have left him behind.
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87km to go: Astan rider Luis Leon Sanchez is out on his own in front with a 41-second lead over the pink jersey group, which is being led up the narrow, twisting tree-lined corridor by Sky. At the moment he is being chased by a man waving a magic wand, wearing a pink tutu and orange t-shirt combo, set off nicely by the rubber-duck buoyancy ring around his waist.
89.4km to go: What’s left of the nine-man breakaway group has a 43-second lead in the early stages of the climb to the summit of the Colle delle Finestre, but it’s unlikely to be enough to see them over the top without being caught. Behind them, Sky’s Salvatore Puccio is leading the chase, in the absence of his team-mate Vasil Kiryienka, who has abandoned.
Sky take over from Mitchelton-Scott at the start of the Colle delle Finestre pic.twitter.com/2q598Yn4QH
— the Inner Ring (@inrng) May 25, 2018
91km to go: Sky are leading the maglia rosa group at a quite high tempo, hoping to take control of the stage. Simon Yates’s Mitchelton Scott and assorted Astana riders are tucked in behind them.
Your nine-man breakaway: Nathan Brown (EF Education First-Drapac), Matteo Montaguti (Ag2R-La Mondiale), Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana), Krists Neilands (Israel Cycling Academy), Darwin Atapuma and Valerio Conti (UAE Team Emirates), Koen Bouwman and Danny van Poppel (LottoNL-Jumbo), Rodolfo Torres (Androni Giocattoli). They have a lead of 1min 11sec as the field begin the big climb of the day.
95km to go: We’re approximately three kilometres from the foot of the brutal climb to the Colle Delle Finestre. The five-man breakaway has almost doubled in size to nine.
100km to go: A new five-man breakaway has put a few seconds between themselves and the pink jersey bunch. Conti, Brown, Atapuma, Nielands and Montaguti are the men in question.
106km to go: We’re on the 30km stretch of false flat before the big climb of the day and the gap between the breakaway and the pink jersey group has all but closed. There was a feed zone at the bottom of the descent and while those in the breakaway took their musettes and slowed down to transfer their bidons, gels and other goodies to their pockets, the pink jersey group just raced straight through the feed zone. They’ve caught the escape party, but will need to get grub on board at some point before they hit the Colle Delle Finestre. Mitchelton-Scott had the pink jersey group strung out like the washing as they forced to pace to close down that breakaway.
109km to go: The race has split into three distinct groups: the breakaway group in which three of the main GC contenders (but not race leader Simon Yates) have trusted lieutenants to help them in the knockings of today’s stage, the pink jersey group of about 70 riders who are 40 seconds behind and the grupetto.
@bglendenning the Italian press picked up in a few hours, but unnoticed in English press that Yates changed to brand new shoes yesterday. Interesting to see if he reverts back today.
— Philip Addyman (@addymanpj) May 25, 2018
118km to go: We have TV pictures, so fasten your seat belts for what promises to be an exciting afternoon watchjing other people suffer. Some big news - a 15-man breakaway has opened a gap of about one minute on the pink jersey group at the bottom of the first descent. Sky have two riders - Henao and Cruz - in it, Bahrain have one, Tom Dumoulin’s Sunweb team has Laurens Ten Dam in it. Domenico Pozzovivo (Bahrain-Merida) has Giovanni Visconti in it.
Race leader Simon Yates’s Mitchelton–Scott team have not - repeat not - managed to get anyone into the breakaway. That’s an early blow in today’s stage for Yates - when the going gets tough later on, he’ll have nobody positioned up the road to help him.
Still waiting for a live TV feed: On Eurosport, Sean Kelly is very down on Simon Yates’ chances of holding on to the pink jersey. He quite clearly thinks the Englishman is going to lose it over the next two days, but wonders if he is genuinely exhausted or just didn’t eat and drink properly yesterday and merely suffered from what is known in cycling parlance as hunger knock.
138km to go: Sky’s Sergio Henao and Astana’s Luis León Sánchez have got themselves in a breakaway as the bunch tackle the summit of the Colle del Lys. They’re just two of several riders who’ll be attempting to put some distance between the pink jersey group so they’ll be in a good position to help their men among the main GC contenders when they attack later today. The descent is 22 kilometres, then there’s 30 kilometres of false flat (patronising explanation: a low-gradient climb, usually occurring partway up a steeper climb) before the riders take on the Colle delle Finestre.
Two big abandonments
Fancied as a potential winner before the race, the Italian national champion Fabio Aru has had a disastrous Giro riding for UAE Team Emirates. He has abandoned this morning. Sky’s Belarusian rider Vasil Kiryienka has also quit the race.
145km to go: The riders are tackling the Col San Giovanni, a comparatively stiff climb that leads into the beginning of the Colle del Lys, the first categorised climb of the day. A group of 10 riders - Betancur, Pedrero, Montaguti, Cherel, Sanchez, Formolo, Goncalves, Henao, Atapuma, Conti - have opened a gap on the rest of the bunch.
From the Global Cycling Network: Emma Pooley asks some of the riders in this year’s Giro d’Italia what music they like to listen to as they warm up.
They’re racing in Stage 19: The 158-strong peloton rolled out of Veneria Reale, went through the neutral zone and were given the all-clear to start racing and are now 36 kilometres into the stage as they negotiate the first of the day’s categorised climbs - the Cat 2 Colle Del Lys. Androni Giocattoli’s Marco Frapporti has tried and failed to launch an early attack and the group is still together.
Stage 19: Venaria Reale to Bardonecchia (184km)
From the Giro d’Italia 2018 website: The last summit finish awaits the peloton after a full mountain stage. Shortly after the start, the route climbs to the top of Colle del Lys (from Viù). After dropping into the Dora Riparia valley and reaching Susa, the route climbs once more to the top of Colle delle Finestre. The Colle delle Finestre (Cima Coppi) has a steady 9.2% gradient throughout (with just a short punchy bit in Meana di Susa topping out at 14%). The first 9 km are on tarmac, while the last 9 km is a gravel road, all the way to the summit.
Twenty-nine hairpins are tucked in less than 4 km over the first part of the climb (45 hairpins overall until the summit). The descent is very technical as the roadway is narrow and initially unprotected, up to Pian dell’Alpe. As the route goes back onto the ss. 23, the climb is resumed with do-able gradients all the way to the finish. A long uncomplicated climb follows, leading to the Sestriere categorised summit.
Following a fast drop into Oulx and a false flat section leading to Bardonecchia (intermediate sprint), the route takes in the closing climb to the top of Jafferau. The final 7 km run entirely uphill, with sharp 9-10% gradients, topping out at 14% in the first part. The road narrows in Maillaures, approximately 6 km before the finish, in the steepest section. The finish line lies on a 50m long, 6m wide home stretch.
Top 10 on General Classification
Simon Yates leads the Giro d’Italia by 28 seconds from Tom Dumoulin. Italy’s Domenico Pozzovivo is in third place, while Chris Froome is 3min 22sec off the pace in fourth.
Yesterday's stage report ...
Sean Ingle was in Prato Nevosa for the Guardian yesterday and here’s his dispatch from the front line.
Stage 19: Venaria Reale to Bardonecchia (184km)
Twenty-eight seconds. That’s the slender lead Simon Yates has in this year’s Giro by after seeing his lead over Tom Dumoulin halved in yesterday’s Stage 18 from Abbiategrasso to Prata Nevoso. Upon being asked if this might signal the beginning of the end of his attempt to win the race, the Michelton-Scott rider from Bury was less than bullish with his response. “It’s a good question,” he said. “I don’t know. I hope not. We’ll see.”
We certainly will and after nearly 2,000 miles of racing across 20 days, the outcome of this year’s Giro remains very much up in the air with just three stages remaining. Taking in the Colle Delle Finestre today’s 184km slog from Venaria Reale to Bardonecchia is the most difficult and attritional of the race and could not come at more perfect time – the day after the maglia rosa has shown his first signs of weakness. Don’t touch that dial.
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