Leopold König sits sixth overall at the Giro d'Italia after a battling ride on stage 20 as the Italian Grand Tour reached its final summit.

The Czech star battled hard over an epic penultimate stage to take a giant step towards what would be his best ever Grand Tour finish in his debut Giro.

Despite slipping one place to sixth on the general classification, the 27 year old secured a strong overall position for Team Sky, stepping up ably after team leader Richie Porte was forced out of the event through injury.

König crossed the line ninth at Sestriere after he and Mikel Nieve had battled late on in a bid to guard against the threat of both Ryder Hesjedal (Cannondale-Garmin) and Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo) on the GC.

Both men had pushed clear up the road as an elite group formed on the race's highest climb, the Colle delle Finestre. Late drama saw overall leader Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) unable to follow the acceleration, but despite being isolated the Spaniard was able to limit his losses, effectively wrapping up the race victory.

Fabio Aru (Astana) took a second stage win in succession to lock up second place on GC, 2:02 back on Contador. König sits 10:50 off the maglia rosa ahead of a final run into Milan on Sunday.

After the finish König admitted that time-loss from a crash on stage 13 was still a disappointment, but quickly added that sixth is an extremely encouraging result in his first Giro.

"Now I regret the crash which has probably cost me a top five. That's how things are," he said.

"In the end to be sixth as a domestique for Richie is not that bad. It's going to be my best Grand Tour result and my first time at the Giro. I'm just happy that the Giro is a race for me. I was a little bit worried that it's too early and my early form is not that good. I think I've proved myself as a Grand Tour contender. To start three Grand Tours and finish them nine, seven and six is not bad I think!

"I wanted to score a top five. That was the goal and I want to keep this goal for the upcoming Tours. But now it is important to support the other guys from Sky and to support Froomey if I ride the Tour."