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Dutchman Koen Bouwman celebrates on the podium after winning the 19th stage of the Giro d’Italia, a stage from Marano Lagunare to Santuario di Castelmonte, Italy.
The Dutchman Koen Bouwman won the stage. The 19th stage of the Giro d’Italia on Friday and Ecuadorian cyclist Richard Carapaz kept the leader’s pink jersey heading into the final two days of the race.
Bouwman, who competes for Team Jumbo–Visma, beat Mauro Schmid and Alessandro Tonelli in a sprint to the finish at the end of the penultimate day in the mountains after a strange incident in the last corner.
Schmid he complained He was told that Bouwman had cut him in the final corner causing Andrea Vendrame and Attila Valter to go wide when they were also vying for the stage win.
The 178-kilometre (111-mile) route from Marano Lagunare featured four graded ascents, including the second-category ascent to the summit finish at Santuario di Castelmonte. The stage also crossed briefly to Slovenia.
A breakaway of 12 riders had taken off early in the day to build a big lead of about 10 minutes. That changed. With the top-class Kolovrat ascent and the descent there were only five cyclists left on the run.
There were attacks from behind in the general classification group, towards the top of the last climb, but nothing changed. and the main rivals stayed together, almost four minutes behind Bouwman.
Carapaz, the 2019 Giro champion and Olympic gold medalist in Tokyo, held three seconds to ahead of 2020 runner-up Jai Hindley and 1:05 minutes over Mikel Landa for third place.
“It has been a tough stage and in the end I have to say that I am happy. I thought I figured I’d win the sprint for third place and get the bonus. Although I have not achieved it, it is still a good day for me” the Ecuadorian.
However, there was bad news for Carapaz, as his Ineos Grenadiers teammate Richie Porte, his main support rider in the mountain stages, had to withdraw He left the Giro due to illness at the start of the day.
Everything could be decided in the penultimate stage of the race on Saturday. The 20th course has received the maximum difficulty rating of five stars and features three grueling ascents: Passo San Pellegrino, Passo Pordoi–which is the highest point of the race–; and the final Passo Fedaia at the foot of the Marmolada Glacier, at the end of the 168-kilometre (104-mile) route from Belluno.
The Giro ends on Sunday in Verona with an individual time trial.