Three days ago Nairo Quintana faced a lot of criticism for his attack on the descent of the Stelvio but the Colombian has always refused it all, claiming that he made most of the difference on the climb. Today he proved that there is only one deserved winner of the Giro d'Italia by winning the brutal mountain time trial on Monte Grappa.

 

However, the Colombian had to dig a lot deeper than he usually does and for once, his face showed signs of suffering when he approached the finish. Fabio Aru gave him a run for the money by producing an excellent performance in a stage that produced some massive time differences.

 

After the first flat 7km, Quintana was 16 seconds faster than his Italian rival and the Italian tv broadcasters tried to make it into a Colombian duel between Quintana and Rigoberto Uran (Omega Pharma-Quick Step). The GPS times showed that the Movistar rider was constantly gaining ground, indicating that he was on his way to a convincing stage win.

 

At the second check halfway up the climb, however, Aru had reduced his deficit to just 8 seconds while Uran in third was 36 seconds back. It was now clear that the battle was between Astana and Movistar and the trend was that Aru was riding faster.

 

The GPS times later showed that Aru had drawn equal with his rival and suddenly it seemed that a surprise could be in store. For once, Quintana had to show signs of pain as he needed to up the pace to live up to his status as favourite.

 

He did so in impressive fasion as he took back 17 seconds in the final few kilometres to take the win and underline his status as race leader in convincing fashion. Aru finished a close second but the pair was in a class of his own, putting massive amounts of time into the other podium rivals.

 

Uran did well to take third but he saw his advantage over Aru in the GC reduced to just 41 seconds. Pierre Rolland (Europcar) did the time trial of his life to take fourth but the Frenchman was unable to match the impressive Aru and dropped to fourth in the overall standings.

 

Domenico Pozzovivo (Ag2r) finished fifth and moved into the same position in the overall standings while Rafal Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo) had the disappointing experience of getting passed by Aru, dropping to sixth in the standings.

 

As Wilco Kelderman (Belkin) had a poor ride and Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin) had an untimely mechanical, Cadel Evans (BMC) was another winner, the Australian moving back up from 9th to 7th after finishn 7th on the stage. Hesjedal dropped to 9th as a consequence of his bad luck.

 

The overall win and the podium may have been decided but there is still a lot to play for in what could be the hardest road stage of the entire race. The penultimate stage ends on the brutal Monte Zoncolan which is the hardest and steepest climb of the entire race ad massive time gaps can again be expected. Not only is the stage win up for grabs, there is also a thrilling battle between Aru and Uran for 2nd in store.

 

After yesterday's big mountain stage, the riders faced what could potentially be the single most decisive stage of the entire race. The 26.8km time trial up the from Bassano del Grappa to Cima Grappa had an easy start with 7 flat kilometres but from there things got really brutal. The final 19.2km took the riders up the Monte Grappa whose average gradient of 8% was expected to produce some massive time differences.

 

The first rider down the ramp was Jetse Bol who started his time trial at 13.15 local time. However, the Dutchman was not the first one to reach the finish as he was passed by Michael Hepburn (Orica-GreenEDGE) who posted the first time of 1.17.21.

 

The Australian champion didn't lead the race for long though as Michel Koch (Cannondale) had crushed his time at the second intermediate check halfway up the climb. The German maintained his speed to the finish to beat his rival by 2.04.

 

Koch led the race for some time while the many sprinters battled to finish within the time limit. He was finally knocked out of the hot seat by Laurent Pichon (FDJ) but the Frenchman didn't get much time to enjoy his lead.

 

Nicola Boem was the first os several Bardiani riders to excel on this climb and the Italian did a fantastic ride to beat Pichon by a massive 2.56. His teammate Enrico Barbin made it into the provisional second place to prove that Bardiani had big plans.

 

Ben Swift (Sky) proved that he is so much more than a sprinter when he was the first rider to get close to Boem's time, losing just 10 seconds to the Italian. At this point, it was already clear though that another Bardiani rider was about to take the lead as Sonny Colbrelli had been the fastest at the second check.

 

Colbrelli beat his teammate and moment later it became a clean sweep of the provivional podium when Stefano Pirazzi set a time that was a massive 1.52 faster than his teammate's. The Bardiani dominance was broken by Rodolfo Torres (Colombia) who moved into second moments later.

 

Mattia Cattaneo (Lampre) set the third fastest time before another Bardiani rider, Francesco Bongiorno, made it into fourth. Winner Anacona (Lampre) set the fifth fastest time but all eyes were now on Tim Wellens (Lotto).

 

At the intermediate check, the Belgian had just been two seconds behind Pirazzi but he did an incredible final part to beat the Italian by 34 seconds. Moments later, Edoardo Zardini became the next Bardiani rider to make it into the top 5 before Enrico Battaglin did the same.

 

Riccardo Zoidl (Trek) proved that he is still strong at the end of his first grand tour when he made it into third but most focus was now on Dario Cataldo (Sky). The Italian had been fastest at the second check but at the finish, Wellens was 10 seconds faster.

 

Instead, it was another Sky rider who took the lead as Sebastan Henao set a time that was 12 seconds faster than Wellens but his lead had already come under threat by Franco Pellizotti (Androni). The Italian had been fastest at the second check and he kept his speed all the way to the finish to go 26 seconds faster than the Colombian leader.

 

The GC battle was now heating up and it seemed that Cadel Evans (BMC) was a big loser when he crossed the line in 5th. As Kelderman and Hesjedal did even worse, however, he ended up passing both of them in the overall standings.

 

At the second check, Pozzovivo had indicated that he was going fast and he set a time that 58 seconds faster than Pellizotti's after passing Hesjedal along the way. At this point, however, everybody knew that Aru was on a fantastic day and they didn't have to eait long before the Italian crushed the previous best time by 2.07!

 

Majka had been passed by the Italian but made it into fourth while Rolland did a great ride to set the second best time. Uran dug deep to beat Rolland but the real excitement was concerning the stage win.

 

The GPS times had shown that Aru was gaining ground on Quintana but the race leader ended the stage exceptionally well to take the stage win and strengthen his overall lead.