2025 Giro d'Italia Stage 19
Close to the end but no fireworks yet!
Welcome back for Stage 19, the Queen Stage of this Giro!
It is 166km long and has nearly 5000m of climbing. The profile looks like Donald Trump’s signature, or the zig-zag jaws of a shark. It is up and down right from the start, and those who are slow on the climbs will have to make up the time on the descents. It is not quite a summit finish, but as good as. After the final climb to Antagnod at 1733m of elevation, there is a 5km descent with a series of switchbacks leading the the final km through Chapoluc which includes some cobbles. This stage may well put to rest the final GC in this Giro, the winner could likely come from someone in the top 5 currently, or perhaps we will get big surprise today and someone much further down the list will do a ‘Froomey a la 2018’.
We join the race with 99km to go as the large breakaway group get to the top of the cat 1 Col Tzecore. It was Astana rider Christian Scaroni who topped out first. There are 26 riders in the main breakaway, one absentee is Lorenzo Fortunato who is having a day off the breakaway for once. He has enough KOM points to secure the blue climbers jersey.
A minute behind the breakaway group are three chasers, and then the main peloton are currently 2:50 behind.
95km to go and everyone is descending the Col Tzecore now. When they reach the valley there is a short section of flattish terrain where there is an intermediate sprint, and then the climbing starts again with the Col Saint-Pantaleon (patron saint of trousers?) No actually Saint-Panaleon is the patron saint of lottery winners (it’s true I just Googled it). So maybe someone will get lucky on the climb??
90km to go, as the riders snake their way down the descent of the Tzecore the gap to the breakaway grows slightly to 3:11. It is lovely seeing the snow capped mountains in the background, the scenery in the Giro truly is more magnificent than in any other race.
83km to go, and the breakaway riders have reached the valley and are riding through a feed zone the municipality of Saint-Vincent. The pace slows down so everyone can safely grab their musettes and bidons. It looks very hot out there today and several riders take ice packs to put down the back of their jerseys. The peloton are still 3:11 behind.
81km to go and the intermediate sprint is coming in just over 2km, not that anyone will be racing for it though. The gap to the peloton has increased slightly to 3:40. UAE are at the front of the peloton and have 4 riders leading Isaac del Toro in pink. Directly behind them are EF who are protecting Carapaz, and then some Visma riders are next with Simon Yates. The peloton have reached the feeding zone now and are picking up their lunches.
78km to go, the intermediate sprint has been and gone, and now the breakaway are riding up a steep street in the town of Saint-Vincent and there are plenty of fans on the roadside the have come out to cheer them on. Saint-Vincent by the way has one of only five casino’s in the whole of Italy.
73km to go and the breakaway have now started up the Col Saint-Pantaleon (patron saint of lottery winners, Saint-Vincent casino, lots of gambling references!) Here is the profile of this climb:
71km to go and the peloton, who are 3:28 behind have just reached the foot of the climb, they are being led by Red Bull Bora, who remember have Giulio Pellizzari who has taken over leadership of the team since Primoz Roglic left the race. Pellizzari has looked very strong over the past three stages so perhaps he is in the mood for an attack today.
70km to go, and as the breakaway group make their way up this steep climb there are already casualties as the back, and riders who can’t hold the pace are being distanced. Christian Scaroni is one of those riders, as are David Gaudu, Patrick Konrad and Jefferson Cepeda,
70km to go, Red Bull are still working it at the front of the peloton. The pink bull (Isaac del Toro) is still sitting safely behind his UAE team mates.
68km to go, and thanks to the work of Red Bull Bora, the gap to the breakaway is dropping. The peloton are 2:45 behind now with just under 12km to go on the climb. The breakaway riders are not riding together very well, and it look like there might be riders preparing to try and get away. Two riders who won’t be planning on doing that are Darren Rafferty and Georg Steinhauser from EF who have been placed in the breakaway group to help their team mate Richard Carapaz if he can bridge across to them.
67km to go, it is really hot out there on this climb, over 30C and there is no wind. The riders will be really suffering. Red Bull are still at the front of the peloton, jerseys unzipped. The gap to the breakaway isn’t really coming down as fast as we thought, and it has gone up to 2:53 now. The breakaway riders are splitting into three groups on the road. In the lead group are Antonio Tiberi, still only 14:48 on GC, Romain Bardet who came second on the Stage 17, and Stage 15 winner Carlos Verona.
64km to go and we are on the switchbacks of the climb. The peloton are still struggling to catch the breakaway groups, they are now 3 minutes behind. At the front of the breakaway Carlos Verona is driving the pace forward. There is 7km left to climb and it is getting windy up there as the riders reach the last section.
62km to go and UAE are back at the front of the peloton, the gap to the breakaway is now 2:39 and falling. Just over 5km left to climb.
60km to go, there are only 18 riders left in the front of the peloton now, so from now on this will be called the pink jersey group. The gap to the breakaway is falling fast now, they are only 2 minutes behind. Visma have come to the front of this group and are working for Simon Yates.
58km to go, Egan Bernal is struggling with the heat, and accepts gels from his Ineos team mates as he pours a bidon of water over his head.
57km to go. Here is the current position on the road as the breakaway riders prepare to reach the summit of this climb.
Nicolas Prodhomme is the first rider over the top and can now enjoy a long descent back down the valley into Saint Vincent.
55km to go, the pink jersey group are now reaching the top of the Saint-Pantaleon now, they are being led by Visma rider Stephen Kruijswijk, a man who was leading this race himself back in 2016 before a spectacular crash into a snow bank:
It’s jersey’s up now for the descent. Sweet relief for those climbing legs and overheated bodies.
48km to go, and we’ve just had an amazing view of the Matterhorn, which looks like a giant snow coloured piece of Toblerone, because of course the Matterhorn was Theodore Tobler’s inspiration for Toblerone’s shape.
44km to go and while I was looking at Toblerone on Wikipedia the peloton managed to get 4km further down the Col Saint-Pantaleon. The breakaway have increased their gap again, now 2:30. If anyone in the pink jersey group is feeling lucky today and wants to make an attack it will have to come on the final climb now, the Col de Joux:
37km to go now and we are back in the valley by the town of Saint-Vincent. The Red Bull km is coming up which the breakaway group will cycle through without any fanfare. The pink jersey group are still some distance away - 3 minutes. They could just be waiting for this final climb though.
Antonio Tiberi takes a 10 second bonus by going through the Red Bull km first, now he is 14:38 off the GC rather than 14:48.
36km to go, Carlos Verona, Nicolas Prodhomme and Antonio Tiberi have broken off the front of the breakaway group now and have started climbing up the Col de Joux. It looks like one of these guys fancies the stage.
35km to go and the Peloton have just ridden past the Saint-Vincent Casino I mentioned yesterday. They will start climbing again soon and we have to expect something to finally happen on this last climb now.
34km to go, Stephen Kruijswijk still drives the pink jersey group forward. There are riders at the back of this group who are struggling to hold the pace now, one of this is Max Poole from Picnic PostNL, he is only 8:00 down on GC at the moment and has team mates Romain Berdet and Gijs Leemreize trying to pace him back on. Georg Steinhauser from EF has linked up with Carapaz as planned and takes over the work at the front from Visma.
32km to go, the Picnic boys are losing sight of the pink jersey group, and Max Poole is losing time on GC. Derek Gee’s only team mate in the pink jersey group has just been dropped too.
31km to go, Adam Yates has started to drop back from the pink jersey group, but del Toro still has Brandon McNulty and Rafal Mijka up there to ride for him. Simon Yates is left with only one domestique now as Stephen Kruijswijk is done for the day. Wilko Kelderman sits at the front of the group now with Simon Yates on his wheel. There is another Visma rider Bart Lemmen waiting about a minute up the road.
30km to go and there is 10km to go on this climb for the three breakaway riders. They are still over 2 minutes clear of the pink jersey group. Antonio Tiberi is being distanced slightly by Verona and Prodhomme, could this be a second stage win for Verona?
29km to go, and the Visma rider who started the day in the breakaway; Bart Lemmen has linked up with Simon Yates, and Wilko Kelderman has dropped back, job done for the day. Lemmon is on the front of the pink jersey group now setting the pace. The gap to the three riders at the front of the race is 1:30, and there are no other breakaway riders in between now. It is just the three breakaway riders, then the pink jersey group. Every one else is further back down the mountain.
28km to go, we are halfway up this climb now, and Nicolas Prodhomme has a go at breaking away from Tiberi and Verona. He manages to get about 10 seconds in front, and the gap keeps growning.
27km to go, Carlos Verona takes a look over his shoulder as the pink jersey group is only a minute behind now. Prodhomme has eked out a 30 second lead over Verona and Tiberi. UAE are pulling on the front of the pink jersey group again.
26km to go, Verona has decided to keep chasing Prodhomme on his own, and Antonio Tiberi has started to fall back into the pink jersey group as he has team mate Damiano Caruso in there and Caruso is in 5th place on GC only 3:06 down. Prodhomme is over a minute ahead of everyone now, he only has 1 win in his career and that came this year in the Tour of the Alps.
25km to go, Giulio Pellizzari tried a little move from the pink jersey group which woke everyone up for a few seconds. The group have just passed Carlos Verona who is going backwards on the climb now. His day’s work is over. There are just ten riders left in the pink jersey group now:
Pellizzari is looking strong again, but Isaac del Torro is looking calm and extremely fresh. There is just under 4km of climbing left now, will we see any attacks from this group of favourites?
Del Toro has no need to attack from this far out, but I think if Carapaz or Yates want to get some time back on del Toro then they need to attack. It doesn’t look like the young Mexican is going to crack on his own at this pace, and the UAE domestiques are still looking very comfortable at the front controlling the pace.
22km to go, 1.5km to go on the climb, this would be a great time for someone to attack (hint hint!) Prodhomme still has a comfortable lead at the front, 1:12 currently. Perhaps everyone is waiting for the final mountain stage tomorrow?
21km to go, finally some action! ATTACK by Richard Carapaz! Simon Yates and Isaac del Toro are quickly on his wheel, then Rafal Mijka manages to bridge across and the group is back together again. Hopefully Carapaz will try again soon, he is a very streaky climber and loves to make repeated attacks.
20km to go, Prodhomme is over the top of the Col de Joux, as Giulio Pellizzari comes to the front of the pink jersey group suddenly, Majka brings him back again, pouring water on his little fire. Majka rides past Pellizarri and holds up a hand to him, gesturing ‘calm down son’.
We are descending again now, and here is what is coming up before we reach the finish line in Champoluc.
The climbing starts again almost as soon as the descent is over. Nicolas Prodhomme is just under 1km ahead of the pink jersey group now as he goes under the 15km to go banner. If UAE can keep control of the pink jersey group at this current pace then it looks like Prodhomme might get the stage, however if Yates, Carapaz or Pellizzari try to attack then they could end up catching him.
12km to go, Prodhomme is still a minute and a half in front of the main group and still no attacks.
10km to go and nothing has changed yet.
8km to go, Prodhomme’s lead looks incredibly safe, still 1:37 for him. Nothing is happening in the pink jersey group still as UAE have complete control for now.
6.8km to go, and with just under 2km left to climb on the Antagnod Richard Carapaz ATTACKS again, and this time only del Toro can follow him. The two riders in 1st and 2nd on GC are off on their own and Simon Yates is unable to follow!
6km to go, Simon Yates has no team mates and no energy left to follow del Toro and Carapaz. Derek Gee comes to the front of the chasing group and tries to get away but Pellizzari is on his wheel and the escape s unsuccessful.
4km to go, del Toro is sitting comfortably on Carapaz’s wheel and the two riders are now 30 seconds ahead of the Simon Yates group.
2km to go, Prodhomme is descending to the finish line in Champoluc now. He’s got plenty of time to mentally prepare himself for crossing the finish line in style now.
1km to go, Prodhomme comes home after a huge day out in the breakaway. Pink smoke fills the air as Nicolas Prodhomme crosses the finish line with his arms in the air! He has only won two races in his whole career and both in the past two months!
Now out GC leaders del Toro and Carapaz cross the line, del Toro gets 2nd nicking 6 bonus seconds extending his lead on Carapaz by 2 seconds. Simon Yates comes in 7th place 24 seconds behind del Toro. Derek Gee finishes a further 5 seconds back.
Here are the stage results:
Nicolas Prodhomme
Isaac del Toro (58 sec)
Richard Carapaz (58 sec)
Damiano Caruso (1:22)
Brandon McNulty (1:22)
Egan Bernal (1:22)
Simon Yates (1:22)
Rafal Mijka (1:22)
Antonio Tiberi (1:22)
Einer Rubio (1:22)
After 5000m of climbing today the GC standings remain exactly the same as yesterday, only the timings have changes:
Isaac del Toro
Richard Carapaz (43 sec)
Simon Yates (1:21)
Derek Gee (2:32)
Damiano Caruso (3:36)
Egan Bernal (5:13)
Giulio Pellizzari (5:46)
Einer Rubio (6:39)
Michael Storer (9:11)
Brandon McNulty (9:33)
So, it will all come down to the final mountain stage tomorrow. Isaac del Toro looks very strong and unflappable, Carapaz still has the legs to make dashing attacks but doesn’t have the team support like del Toro has. UAE could happily control the race again tomorrow, continuing to neutralise all the attacks. Simon Yates ran out of team mates at the crucial part of the race today which isn’t a good look for Visma Lease a Bike. Lets see what happens tomorrow anyway.
Until then, thanks again for reading (if you got this far lol!)