Giro d'Italia 2023 Stage 19

Il Tappone of the Giro is the big one, the final road stage of the race. Five categorized climbs are on the route, three of which are over 2000M including the final climb of Tre Cime Di Lavaredo, topping out over 2300M above sea level. The first hour was ridden at over 50KM per hour but a break would eventually form. Four riders went over the Passo Giau together at 40KM to go with a 7 minute lead including Derek Gee of Israel-Premier Tech, Santiago Buitrago of Bahrain-Victorious, Magnus Cort of EF-Education EasyPost, and Michael Hepburn of Jayco AlUla. Gee tried to get away but Buitrago slowly reeled him in and the pair were together with 1.6KM to go. Buitrago caught and passed Gee, putting 50 seconds into the Canadian in the final 1500M to take the stage win. Cort held on to finish in third place, a highly impressive result for such a versitile rider. For the GC group, João Almeida of UAE, Geraint Thomas of Ineos, and Primož Roglič of Jumbo-Visma were together inside the final kilometer. Roglič tried to attack but could not shake the other two. Thomas put his own attack in with 400M to go. Roglič was distanced briefly but clawed back and put 3 seconds into Thomas by the time they hit the line. Thomas now has 26 seconds on Roglič and nearly a minute on Almeida going into the final ITT up Monte Lussari.