Mauro Schmid snatches Coppi e Bartali overall from Axel Laurance in thrilling finale

Things could hardly have been tighter in Italy after four stages. Across the first four days, the gaps had remained minimal. Laurance, who had already taken the opening stage, also won stage 4 and in doing so took the leader’s jersey from Schmid. The difference between the two? Just two seconds, with the toughest stage of the race still to come.

The final stage featured 2,300 metres of climbing, most of it packed into the Monte Stella, a demanding ascent of 4.6 kilometres at 8.7 percent. The climb came once after 70 kilometres and then again with 17 kilometres remaining, and that double passage looked certain to create the time gaps that had been missing all week. Before the race reached the key climb, an early break had already gone clear.

There were no major GC threats up the road, but Soudal Quick-Step had sent Martin Svrcek into the move as support for leaders Viktor Soenens and Maximilian Schachmann for the finale. The first ascent of Monte Stella came too far from the finish to split the favourites, though the advantage of the leaders had already been cut to around a minute and a half.

By the foot of the final climb, the breakaway had been caught and the stage was set for the decisive showdown. Jayco AlUla clearly had a plan to pressure Laurance, and on the steepest slopes they put it into action. Alan Hatherly made the first move and went clear on his own, and not long afterwards team leader Schmid bridged across to him. The Jayco duo quickly opened a promising gap.

Behind them, Jardi Christiaan van der Lee (EF Education-EasyPost) briefly tried to make the jump alone, before a small chasing group formed behind with Laurance among them. The race was still fully alive: the gap was only 15 seconds at the top, just before the descent. For Laurance, a possible lifeline looked to be teammate Andrew August.

In the end, he did not need any help. Laurance attacked by himself on the descent, rode across to the two leaders and turned the front of the race into a three-man battle for stage victory and the overall classification. It was simple: if Schmid finished ahead of Laurance, the Swiss rider would win the race overall. Schmid tried to settle it with an attack before the line, but Laurance stayed with him. In the sprint, however, Schmid still proved strongest, winning the stage and with it the final general classification.