Rigoberto Urán produced a sensational performance on the final climb on stage 20 to ride into second place at the Giro d’Italia.
Third on stage elevates Colombian star
Rigoberto Urán produced a sensational performance on the final climb on stage 20 to ride into second place overall at the Giro d’Italia.
The Colombian forged on through the driving snow on Tre Cime di Lavaredo to claim third place on the summit finish, distancing chief rival Cadel Evans to jump a spot on the general classification at the final time of asking.
Urán was supported by his Team Sky team-mates as the lead group whittled down in freezing conditions and was able to follow a determined acceleration from the maglia rosa of Vincenzo Nibali (Astana).
As Nibali went up the road solo to win the stage Urán set about putting time into Evans - the Australian (BMC Racing) eventually losing contact in the final two kilometres.
The end result saw Nibali take the stage by 17 seconds to all but confirm his status as race winner, with Urán now occupying the next step of the podium barring disaster on the run in to Brescia, 4:43 back.
Team Sky also produced a superb display of depth with Sergio Henao and Xabier Zandio giving it everything to both finish inside the top 30 on the stage, all but guaranteeing the teams classification for the men in black and blue.
Mountain decider
After he had warmed up following a monumental effort Urán said: "With Cadel only 10 seconds in front my goal was to try and jump up to second place and try to go for the stage win in the process. But with the conditions being so difficult and Nibali proving to be so strong on the day it was a hard goal to achieve.
"When I saw Cadel get into difficulties I dug deep and concentrated my efforts on capturing second place and gave it everything. It is nice to have taken second but the team have done so much great work. Not just today with helping to protect and position me, but also during the whole three weeks.
"It is me who takes this second place but it is the great work of the team which allowed me to do so and I am very grateful for their support."
Snow white
As the final stage in the mountains came to a head Nibali attacked his rivals 2.5km from the spectacular summit finish, crossing the line in front of second-placed Fabio Duarte (Colombia) who was followed home two second later by Urán, who scooped eight further bonus seconds in the process.
The win also saw Nibali take over from Britain's Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma - Quick-Step) at the top of the points classification.
Carlos Betancur (AG2R-La Mondiale) was the other big beneficiary of a memorable stage, with his fourth-place finish moving him back in the best young rider's white jersey and elevating him to fifth in the general classification.
The day had been heavily amended due to snow on high ground, with three climbs being taken out and the route subsequently extended to 210km, but none of the drama of the closing kilometres was lost.
The stage's four-man breakaway split apart on the lower slopes of the category-two climb to Passo Tre Croci, leaving Pavel Brutt (Katusha) to plough on solo.
He managed to hang on to the summit, but with several riders having attacked out of the peloton, his advantage began to plummet and he was caught at the foot of the adjoining climb to Tre Cime di Lavaredo.
Three riders then moved into the lead - Eros Capecchi (Movistar), Pieter Weening (Orica-GreenEDGE) and Gianluca Brambilla (Omega Pharma - Quick-Step) - and briefly held a minute's advantage over a thinned-down peloton, but when the pace on the front was stepped up, it soon began to plummet to set up victory for Nibali.
