Giro d’Italia 2020, stage 20 — live updates as Briton Tao Geoghegan Hart closes in on pink

01:03 PM

32km to go

Quite surprisingly, Davide Ballerini, a sprinter by trade, is pushing on and teh Italian has gained over a minute on the remnants of the breakaway. The group containing the maglia rosa trails by 3min 21sec.

01:00 PM

33.5km to go

Filippo Ganna and Salvatore Puccio are switching out on the front. Each doing a turn while the other rests and recovers before taking over, while Rohan Dennis and Tao Geoghegan Hart and sit third and fourth wheel, just ahead of Ben Swift.

12:57 PM

35km to go

The world time trial champion Filippo Ganna has taken over on the front, pulling hard as the Italian starts to increase the pace and whittle this group down a little further. With a time trial concluding the race on Sunday, Ganna may have hoped to win a fourth stage in Milan, but he is being the perfect team-mate today and riding for Tao Geoghegan Hart. 

12:54 PM

37.5km to go

Arnaud Démare is caught by the Ineos Grenadiers-powered group that features all of the main general classification contenders — those in with a chance of winning the race, and those hoping to finish in the top 10 — and it is nearing the second ascent of Sestriere which is a tougher test than the first in today’s stage.

12:50 PM

40km to go

Davide Ballerini (Deceuninck-Quick Step) now leads the stage, though presumably the Italian is getting up the road on behalf of team-mate Joao Almeida rather than going for the stage win. Almeida, of course, led the Giro for 15 days before he cracked on the steep slopes of the Stelvio on Thursday. Although the Portuguese cannot realistically expect to regain the maglia rosa, he will be hoping to cement his fifth place on general classification which would be a very good result for the 22-year-old grand tour bebutant.

12:45 PM

44km to go

Rolling down the descent, nobody appears to be having any issues. Nobody is having any wardrobe malfunctions here today. Though fairly chilly as they summitted at over 2,000 metres above sea level, it is nowhere near as cold as the Stelvio on Thursday.

12:39 PM

50km to go

Filippo Fiorelli (Bardiani-CSF-Faizane) clipped off the front as he neared the first of three summits of the Sestriere in today’s stage. Though I’m sure the Italian and his team will be delighted that he just added a few points to his tally in the mountains classification, the real business of this stage is taking shape around four minutes down the road where Ineos Grenadiers continue to set the pace.

12:34 PM

53km to go

Salvatore Puccio leads the peloton, ahead of team-mate Filippo Ganna and Tao Geoghegan Hart who could ride into the history books today should he take the leader’s pink jersey off the shoulders of race leader Wilco Kelderman. Despite riding third wheel, Geoghegan Hart has three team-mates — Rohan Dennis, Jonathan Castroviejo and Ben Swift tucked in behind, ready to give him a helping hand or, in the worst case scenario, a wheel or bike should he have a mechanical issue.

12:29 PM

55km to go

The increase in pace put in on the front by Salvatore Puccio has seen the breakaway’s advantage drop slightly, down to 4min 37sec.

12:26 PM

57km to go

Astana’s  Óscar Rodríguez has peeled off the front of  Tao Geoghegan Hart’s group, allowing  Salvatore Puccio to pull through and set the pace on behalf of the third-place Briton.

12:22 PM

59km to go

Tucked in behind the diminutive Óscar Rodríguez is the entire Ineos Grenadiers team, including British sprinter Ben Swift. Tao Geoghegan Hart is riding fourth wheel just behind Salvatore Puccio and world time trial champion Filippo Ganna. He has a lot of powerful riders working on his behalf today.

12:18 PM

60km to go

Arnaud Démare and Elia Viviani managed to regain contact with the breakaway, which would suggest the gradients on this long drag up are not too difficult. 

12:11 PM

63km to go

The breakaway is doing well to hold onto its lead at around five minutes, the riders each taking a turn on the front, but surely they will be getting reined in by the group containing the key protagonists in the general classification race this afternoon?

12:07 PM

66km to go — Ineos Grenadiers on their move

Ineos Grenadiers have moved their entire posse of riders towards the front of the peloton, just behind a lone Astana rider. Once the boy in sky blue is done, one imagines Tao Geoghegan Hart’s foot-soldiers will increase the pace in an effort to rid the field of any deadwood. Jai Hindley (Sunweb) will, I’m sure, be watching the wheel of Geoghegan Hart very closely. The young Aussie cannot afford to lose any time to the Briton, just three seconds separate the two.

12:02 PM

68km to go

Although still climbing, the stage leaders are still not on the official climb. Their lead on the dwindling peloton has dropped to 5min 6sec. Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) has now been dropped.

12:01 PM

69km to go

Nicola Conci has Trek-Segafredo team-mate Julien Bernard alongside him up near the front of the breakaway. Will be interesting to see if they are going for the stage win today, or are thinking about helping Vincenzo Nibali launching a last-ditch salvo? 

11:58 AM

71km to go

Nicola Conci (Trek-Segafredo) presses on at the front of the breakaway which has caused the group to splinter. Unsurprisingly, the sprinters like Elia Viviani (Cofidis Solutions Crédits) and Arnaud Démare are almost immediately dropped.

11:53 AM

72.5km to go

Interesting to not that Bahrain-McLaren has a single rider — stage winner  Jan Tratnik — up in the breakaway. Presumably he is up there on behalf of team-mate Pello Bilbao who may be thinking of the stage win today. The Basque rider will certainly want to cement his fourth place on general classification. Starting the stage 1min 4sec adrift of third-placed Tao Geoghegan Hart, Bilbao could do some serious damage today if he is on a good day and so Ineos Grenadiers will not want him going off up the road.

11:45 AM

75km to go

Beautiful looking day out in northern Italy, absolutely perfect afternoon for a bike ride. But as the breakaway edges its way up along the valley floor and towards the first ascent of Sestriere I don’t think too many of them will be thinking about the weather or, for that matter, the stunning landscape they are riding through. Although they are around 8km from the official start of the climb, the road is very much on the ascendancy and their advantage on the peloton has dcereded. Down to 5min 40sec now.

11:30 AM

As it stands . . . 

As mentioned, there’s a 21-man breakaway off up the road and it comprises: Davide Ballerini (Deceuninck-Quick Step), Julien Bernard (Trek-Segafredo), Geoffrey Bouchard (Ag2R-La Mondiale), Davide Cimolai (Israel Start-up Nation), Nicola Conci (Trek-Segafredo), Arnaud Démare (Groupama-FDJ), Filippo Fiorelli (Bardiani-CSF-Faizane), Amanuel Gebreigzabhier (NTT), Simon Guglielmi (Groupama-FDJ), Matthew Holmes (Lotto-Soudal), Mikkel Frolich Honore (Deceuninck-Quick Step), Tanel Kangert (EF Pro Cycling), Kamil Malecki (CCC), Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates), Einer Rubio (Movistar), Pieter Serry (Deceuninck-Quick Step), Matteo Sobrero (NTT), Jan Tratnik (Bahrain-McLaren), Andrea Vendrame (Ag2R-La Mondiale), Davide Villella (Movistar) and Elia Viviani (Cofidis Solutions Crédits). Their advantage on the peloton is a shade over six-and-a-half minutes.

Astana have had the remainder of their squad — Rodrigo Contreras, Fabio Felline, Jonas Gregaard and Óscar Rodríguez — riding on the front so their team leader Jakob Fuglsang may be feeling strong today and thinking about challenging for the stage honours here. 

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Most of the focus, though. is expected to be on Wilco Kelderman (Sunweb), Jai Hindley (Sunweb) and young Briton Tao Geoghegan Hart who has a strong looking phalanx of Ineos Grenadiers riders surrounding and shielding him on the approach to the mountains. 

11:00 AM

Afternoon all

And welcome to our live rolling blog from stage 20 at the Giro d’Italia, the 190-kilometre run from Alba to Sestriere. As you will probably know, this is the penultimate stage of the race and the final day in the mountains ahead of Sunday’s time trial in Milan.

Here are the leaders in the four main classifications — those awarded jerseys — the maglia rosa (pink), maglia ciclamino (cyclamen), maglia azzurra (blue) and maglia bianca (white).

Today’s stage got under way at 10.09am and as it stands there is a 21-man breakaway up the road. Before today’s blog gets away in earnest, I can tell you that Arnaud Démare (Groupama-FDJ) is in the breakaway and added some points to his now insurmountable tally in the race for the maglia ciclamino. Providing the Frenchman completes today’s and tomorrow stages withing the respective time limits, then he will be taking that jersey home along with the fours stage he has won. By the way, the leader in the mountains classification Ruben Guerreiro (EF Pro Cycling) is not in the break, but neither is the second rider in that competition, Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soubal), and so barring any disasters then the Portuguese will be taking home the maglia azzurra.

Pretty much the only jerseys that we do not know who will be winning are the maglias rosa and bianca. With just 15 seconds between race leader Wilco Kelderman (Sunweb) and third-placed Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos Grenadiers), with Jai Hindley (Sunweb) sandwiched in between, there is still a lot to ride for today. A lot!

In summary, today should be an absolute cracker of a stage once the race reaches the first of three ascents up the Sestriere.