After a minor GC skirmish came to little on stage 19, the final mountain stage of this year’s Giro d’Italia, featuring the "savage" Colle delle Finestre climb, looks set to decide who takes home the pink jersey on Sunday in Rome.
The race is finely poised going into the final weekend, with 21-year-old Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) top of the pile in the general classification. Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) is second, 43 seconds down on the Mexican, while Britain's Simon Yates (Visma-Lease a Bike) is in third, 1:21 down on the UAE Emirates rider.
A brutal day in the Valle d’Aosta on Friday took in almost 5,000 metres of elevation, but there were minimal changes in the overall standings. The Colle delle Finestre now looms large on the horizon, and is set to decide the race once more. The gravel climb is stooped in recent Giro folklore after Chris Froome turned the tables on Yates in the fight for overall victory on its steep gravel slopes in 2018.
One rider who knows the climb well is Joe Blackmore, the first-ever British winner of the Tour de l‘Avenir in 2024. The now 22-year-old faced a final showdown on the climb last year on his way to overall victory. Blackmore is not at the Giro this year, but told Cycling Weekly that the Finestre was like nothing he had ever experienced before when he took it on last year.
"The Colle du Finestre, phwoar," he said. "It's just a savage climb, the finish over the top of there was really hard too. All the way from the bottom it's the same, it doesn’t get any harder when you hit the gravel, I don't think. The decisive bit in my race on the Finestre actually came through the bottom in the hairpins. You've really just got to get into your own rhythm, all the way to the top. That's the only way to handle it, it's pretty hard all round."
"When I rode it I was kind of glad that I didn't really know what I was in for," he added. "It was absolutely crazy. I think the Giro could end up approaching it in a similar way to how we rode it in the Tour d'Avenir last year. We rode it full-gas from the bottom, which was really hard. The bottom of it is actually pretty rough, it's not a smooth climb at all."
After a series of hairpins lower down the mountain, the climb continues into a large gravel section, all the way to the summit, which will be almost the final point in this year's Giro for the likes of Carapaz and Yates to attack Del Toro.
"Once you hit the gravel then you can potentially get in a bit more of a rhythm," Blackmore said as he continued to reflect on his experiences of the climb "The gravel was pretty loose last year though, so it made it really hard when you’re knackered to keep control of where you're going. I remember that you’ve almost got to ride it where the cars drive in the middle, as it seemed to be really loose, particularly on the sides. It might be different in the Giro."
Del Toro, himself a former Tour de l’Avenir winner, stands on the cusp of greatness and could be crowned the first Mexican Giro winner in Rome on Sunday. So far, he has appeared unshakeable and fearless across the gravel of Tuscany and the mountains that followed.
Carapaz appears to be his most likely challenger, forcing moves across the final week, but stranger things have happened late on in the Giro d'Italia - just ask Yates about Froome.
With the Finestre on the horizon, Del Toro was asked by TNT Sports on Friday evening whether he felt any fear going into the pivotal stage to Sestriere. "Don't crash, that's it," he said. "It's the same as before, I just want to arrive healthy and be there, that's it."
