Cycling: Fabio Aru has finally found his way back - but probably too late in the fight for the overall ranking. The young Italian won the second difficult stage in a row in Sestriere today and continued to gain time on Contador. Still, the Tinkoff-Saxo Spaniard heads into tomorrow's final leg to Milan with an extremely reassuring cushion of time.
Like yesterday, Fabio Aru cried out his joy as he crossed the finish line. A few minutes later, the 24-year-old beamed at the cameras with the winning bouquet in his hands. It's hard to believe that today he finally lost the fight for Rosa against Alberto Contador. But the relief at the regained form and the satisfaction in view of the sometimes exaggerated criticism that the young Sardinian received from the local press after some weaker performances probably outshined the disappointment this evening.
The first 150km of today's stage from Saint-Vincent to Sestriere were just preliminary skirmishes on the Colle delle Finestre, which towered over everything. The legendary climb was part of the Giro for the third time this year - with a maximum gradient of 14% and a length of 18,5km, the last ten of which were over gravel, it will probably be burned into the memory of all riders today . The mountain classification of the Giro d'Italia 2015 was also decided at his top: Since Mikel Landa secured the 45 points at the top ahead of Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo) and Intxausti (Movistar), none of the riders were able to do it today, Giovanni Visconti from to push the top. So the Italian from Movistar wins the mountain classification of the Giro 2015.
Alberto Contador also got into big trouble on the really extremely hard climb of the Colle delle Finestre - Mikel Landa attacked together with Zakarin (Katusha) and took 1:30 minutes from his compatriot up to the summit. A particular problem for Contador was the fact that, in addition to his heavy legs, his teammates weren't having their best day either: he was completely isolated for the entire climb and subsequent descent. The leading duo Landa / Zakarin didn't work very well afterwards, mainly because the Russian was running out of strength until he finally dropped back completely. Aru then immediately caught up with his teammate at the front – Ryder Hesjedal (Cannondale-Garmin), Steven Kruijswijk and Rigoberto Uran (Etixx-QuickStep) riding at his rear. Alberto Contador couldn't follow and kept falling behind.
Like yesterday, Aru was able to mobilize unbelievable strength over the final kilometers. Up to about 3km before the finish, the leading group stayed together as far as possible, the two Astana riders set the pace. Then Fabio Aru attacked. Like yesterday, he pulled away effortlessly on the final climb to Sestiere, beating his pursuers Hesjedal and Uran by 18 and 24 seconds respectively. Alberto Contador finished sixth, 2:25 behind and benefited today from his enormous time cushion on Aru and Landa at the beginning. So tomorrow's overall victory on the completely flat stage to Milan should only be a matter of form for the Spaniard.
Final result stage 20 Giro d'Italia 2015
[easy table th=“0″]1.,Fabio Aru,ITA,Astana,05:12:25
2.,Ryder Hesjedal,CAN,Cannondale-Garmin,00:00:18
3.,Rigoberto Uran,COL,Etixx-QuickStep,00:00:24
4.,Mikel Landa,SPA,Astana,
5.,Steven Kruijswijk,NED,LottoNL-Jumbo,00:00:34
6., Alberto Contador, SPA, Tinkoff-Saxo, 00:02:25
7.,Tanel Kangert,EST,Astana,00:02:28
8th,Franco Pellizotti,ITA,Androni,
9., Leopold Konig, CZE, Sky,
10.,Diego Rosa,ITA,Astana,
[/easy table]