The Colombian Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious) indulged himself in the main day of the Giro d’Italia, winning alone during the nineteenth stage, which became his second partial victory in these pedal classics, since last year he won in segment 17 of the Giro d’Italia itself.
Buitrago, a 23-year-old cyclist from Bogotá, was able to make the day’s break good by raising his arms alone in Las Tres Cimas de Lavaredo, where his legendary compatriot Lucho Herrera raised them to the sky in 1989.
Colombian cycling raised its voice on the same stage, also for the second time in this Giro, since Einer Rubio led the way when he won in Crans Montana. Buitrago, the best climber of the break, showed strength and intelligence against the Canadian Derek Gee Gee (Israel-Premier Tech) to attack 1.5 kilometers from the top and take the spoils with a time of 5h.28.09, at an average of 33.5 km / hour.
With only a few meters to go before the end of the race, Buitrago caught up with and passed the Canadian Derek, who had been leading the action for a long time.
The South American covered the 183 kilometers between Longarone and Tres Cimas de Lavaredo in five hours, 28 minutes and seven seconds. Behind came Gee, 51 seconds away, and the Danish Magnus Nielsen (EF Education-EasyPost), 1:46 minutes away, to complete the day’s awards podium.
After this round, the British Geraint Thomas continues to lead in the general classification, although the Slovenian Primoz Roglic managed to shave three seconds off him in the classification. Thomas dominates the Giro with a global time of 81:55.47 hours, now 26 seconds ahead of the Slovenian.
Buitrago, meanwhile, climbed to 12th overall, 10:03 minutes behind the leader, although the best Latin American in the standings is also Colombian Einer Rubio, who ranks 11th, 7:40 behind.
This Saturday the 20th and penultimate stage of this 106th edition of the Giro d’Italia will be held, an individual time trial of 18.6 kilometers between Tarvisio and Monte Lussari.