Carapaz defends pink jersey
On Friday's 19th stage, Richard Carapaz from Ecuador defended his pink jersey and goes into the final two days of the race with a three-second lead over Australian Jai Hindley from the German Bora-hansgrohe team.
Dutch rider Koen Bouwman took the stage win on Friday ahead of Swiss rider Mauro Schmid and Alessandro Tonelli from Italy. After 178 kilometres, around 40 of which were through Slovenia, he won the sprint from Marano Lagunare to Santuario di Castelmonte at an altitude of 612 metres in a five-man lead group. Bouwman had already won the seventh stage in Potenza.
Buchmann loses time, but remains seventh
Carapaz and Hindley reached the day's finish around four minutes later in the chasing group. Hindley's German team-mate Emanuel Buchmann had to break away on the demanding final climb, but defended his seventh place overall and is now 8:21 minutes behind Carapaz. Spaniard Mikel Landa remains third ahead of this weekend's showdown, 65 seconds behind. "The guys worked well today. It's not going to be easy on the last two stages," said Hindley.
The penultimate stage on Saturday will once again demand everything from the riders in the battle for the top places in the overall standings. The professional cyclists will face 4490 metres of climbing on the 168 kilometres from Belluno to the mountain arrival in Marmolada on the 2057 metre high Fedaia Pass. Before that, the route leads over the 1918 metre high San Pellegrino Pass and the Pordoi Pass (2239 metres). The 2022 Tour of Italy ends on Sunday with a 17.4-kilometre individual time trial in Verona.
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