As the Giro d’Italia came to a showdown on Tre Cime di Lavaredo on Saturday, Rigoberto Urán (Sky) produced a marvellous feat on the final climb on stage 20 to ride into second place overall at the Italian Grand Tour.

In the polar weather conditions in the Dolomites the Colombian forged on through the driving snow to claim third place on the summit finish, distancing chief rival Cadel Evans (BMC) to jump a spot on the general classification.

Nibali would prove unassailable and Urán set about putting time into Evans - the Australian eventually losing contact in the final two kilometres.

At the end of the day Nibali powered home to take an unforgettable stage win by 17 seconds to all but seal his status as race winner, with Urán now occupying the runner up spot ahead of Sunday’s final stage in to Brescia, 4’43” back.

After he had warmed up following his epic effort Urán described how he experienced the decisive moments on the slopes: "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,” Urán said on the Sky website.

"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."