Giro d'Italia stage 20 - Live coverage

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Final mountain stage sees the GC battle head into the Dolomites

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Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the penultimate stage of the 2022 Giro d'Italia.

The riders are just finishing up their final pre-race interviews and call ups and about to begin rolling through neutral. 

It's the last chance to make an impression in the Dolomites and the remaining riders in this race know what's at stake.

Today the riders have 4.1km of neutralisation before they see the flag drop for the real start. We can expect another big fight for the breakaway. 

So we have three huge climbs ahead and a huge battle for GC. Richard Carapaz (IGD) is just three seconds ahead of Jai Hindley (BOH) and Mikel Landa (TBV) is third at just over a minute down. 

And we have an official start to the penultimate stage! The Giro d'Italia is up for grabs today. 

And already we have a rider off the front, it's Sylvain Moniquet (Lotto Soudal) who has a few metres.

And Alessandro De Marchi (Israel Premier Tech) has bridged across, but the peloton isn't giving up just yet. 

And the two have been quickly brought back. The peloton is strung out along the road, waiting for the next attack. 

We're almost 10km in and there's still no breakaway established. The peloton has fanned out across the road and it's looking nervous already. 

Sylvain Moniquet goes again and this time takes Reto Hollenstein with him. There are a few raindrops on the road already. 

150km to go

Now it's time for Christopher Juul-Jensen (Bike Exchange) and Dries De Bondt (Alpecin Fenix) to have a go. 

The bunch is back together and Team DSM has been fairly active on the front. 

It's been a challenging start, and we're already starting to climb up an uncategorised 3km climb. Giulio Ciccone is putting some riders into the red.

There's a group of five forming at the front as they continue climbing:  Sam Oomen (TJV), Giulio Ciccone (TFS), Mauri Vansevenant (QST), Davide Formolo (UAD) and Edoardo Zardini (DRA).

The five leaders have been joined by about 10-15 more riders. This move may come back as well. 

UAE is driving the pace on the descent on wet roads as they just experienced a small rain shower. 

25 km to go - The race is still all over the place. Riders are everywhere as they finish the descent. 

There's a break of about 15 riders up the road with about 10 seconds. Will this be the break of the day? Not sure yet!

Here are the names in the break. Looks like a dangerous one: Lennard Kämna (BOH), Thymen Arensman (DSM), Sam Oomen (TJV), Giulio Ciccone (TFS), Mauri Vansevenant (QST), Antonio Pedrero (MOV), Gijs Leemreize (TJV), Domen Novak (TBV), Davide Formolo (UAD), Sylvain Moniquet (LTS), Alessandro Covi (UAD), Mathieu van der Poel (AFC), Edoardo Zardini (DRA) and Davide Ballerini (QST).

The rain is coming down quite hard now. 

The group of 14 might be let go. They have 15 seconds at the moment. We'll have to wait a few more moments to be sure. 

Zardini takes a tumble in the break, but he's quickly back in the race. 

The peloton is really slowing down and allowing the leaders almost two minutes. This will be the break of the day

Kämna, Arensman, Oomen, Ciccone, Vansevenant, Pedrero, Leemreize, Novak, Formolo, Moniquet, Covi, Vendrame, van der Poel, Zardini and Ballerini will make up the breakaway of the day with 130km to go. 

The 15 leaders have 3 minutes on the peloton so far. 

The peloton has Bahrain Victorious going straight to the front to set the pace. The gap is almost five minutes with 125km to go. 

Bahrain Victorious are still leading, obviously with big plans for Landa today, followed by Team Ineos. 

It was a relatively fast start to today's stage. In the first hour, the average speed was 45.8 kph. The gap to the 14 leaders is up to six minutes. 

The leaders are about 12km away from the first intermediate sprint of the day, in Cencenighe Agordino. They'll reach the town at km 63.5.

It'll be raining on and off, just adding to the drama of today. The temperature will also vary as they go up in elevation, but right now it's around 15 degrees Celsius. 

The leaders have started the first climb of the day - Passo San Pellegrino (Cat. 1). It's a long slog at 18.5km and an average of 6.2 percent. The maximum gradient is 15 percent. 

The leaders are 1km away from the first intermediate sprint of the day at km 63.5. 

Results of the intermediate sprint at Cencenighe Agordino (63.5km):

100km to go. The leaders are still climbing with a 6 minute advantage. 

'Nobody has shown weakness and anything can happen on Saturday" ~ Mikel Landa Read more why Landa isn't content with third in this great story by Stephen Farrand

In the last 12km, the bunch has taken about 45 seconds out of the breakaway's lead. 95 kilometres to go in the stage. 

They're entering the town of Falcade, which means they have about 10km of climbing to go before they get to the top of Passo San Pellegrino.

We're halfway up the Passo San Pellegrino and the leaders are approaching the steepest section now.

Jasha Sütterlin is leading the peloton, followed by sprinter, now domestique, Phil Bauhaus for Bahrain. 

David De La Cruz (Astana Qazaqstan Team) has abandoned the race. 

The race has been in progress for two hours, so it's time to check in on the current average speed, which is 38.9kph. 

Three kilometres to the top of Passo San Pellegrino. Edoardo Zardini (Drone Hopper - Androni Giocattoli) looks to be struggling, but he's hanging in there. His shorts are ripped indicating he was caught up in an early crash. 

The leaders are less than 2km from the top of the first climb. 

Jasha Sütterlin (Bahrain Victorious) is still leading the peloton. 

Davide Formolo (UAE Team Emirates) takes the 40 points on offer at the top of the KOM. 

Results of the first KOM at Passo San Pellegrino (Cat. 1 at 81.9km):

On the descent, the leaders are extending their gap to almost 6 minutes again. The roads are a little damp, but no rain at the moment. 

There's 30km to go before they reach the summit of the Cima Coppi, the highest point in this year's Giro. 

70km to go

With 70km to go, the leaders are back up to the 6 minute marker. 

Here's a reminder of our breakaway: 

We have just over 10km before the break reaches the official start of the Cima Coppi. 

Ballerini is putting so much work into today's stage, not to mention yesterday too! However, the gap is still coming down a little because of Bahrain Victorious in the peloton. 

The views surrounding the riders are spectacular, but they won't have much time to appreciate them today as they prepare to climb the Cima Coppi. 

The leaders are at the bottom of the Passo Pordoi. 

Vendrame is the first to be distanced by the rest of the breakaway. 

Van der Poel has also dropped off the pace on this 11.8km climb.

Covi has attacked, and it's really splitting up the breakaway. 

Ballerini and Vansevenant are the next to be dropped after the attack from Covi. 

The Passo Pordoi has been the Cima Coppi 13 times at the Giro d'Italia. It's an 11.8 kilometres ascent at 6.8 percent and rises to an elevation of 2,239 metres, the highest point of the Giro.

Covi has 6.5km until he gets to the top of the climb. 

50 km to go

Covi has extended his lead to 52 seconds with no one really prepared to chase.

Covi will reach the top in 2km. Poels is on the front of the peloton setting the pace.

Bahrain Victorious is leading the peloton up to the summit, and have about 3km to go. Just three domestiques are left for the maglia rose. 

Covi continues to put time into his chasers, the gap is 1'24 as he approaches the summit. 

Covi passes the Cima Coppi and will take the prize for crossing the highest point of the Giro first. 

A view of the breakaway before Covi attacked. It's some of the most stunning scenery we've seen this Giro. 

Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) has been caught by the peloton. 

It definitely looks like if there will be any action from theGC riders, it will come on the final climb, the Passo Fedaia (Cat. 1). 

Vendrame is also about to be reabsorbed by the peloton. The leader is approaching 30km to go. 

30km to go

The last rider on the road has 2km before he reaches the top of the Cima Coppi, so about 25 minutes behind the leader. 

Just over 25 kilometres remain. Vendrame and van der Poel are just dangling off the front of the peloton, but haven't given up yet. 

Covi has 10km to go before he starts the final climb. His gap continues to grow to more than two minutes. 

We're approaching the final 20km. Here's the race situation which will surely change as we hit the final climb. Alessandro Covi (UAE Team Emirates) has 2'20" on eight chasers while the peloton is 6'12" behind.

The race has been in progress for 4 hours, the average speed is 37kph. It's starting to look unlikely that Covi will be caught by anyone from the peloton. He's about to reach the town of Caprile. 

Wow! After being dropped a while back, Davide Ballerini (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team) has found his second wind and not only rejoined the chase group, caught and passed them. He's now in pursuit of Covi, who has just begun the Marmolada.

Marmolada (Passo Fedaia) - The Cat. 1 is 14km long and averages 7.6km. The maximum slope is 18 percent. 

Giulio Ciccone (Trek - Segafredo) accelerates as the chase group begins the climb. Already some are starting to struggle. 

Sam Oomen and Gijs Leemreize (Jumbo-Visma) are both losing contact. And Ballerini is going backwards too. 

10km to go

It's all starting to kick off now. Landa is preparing for an all or nothing attack in the GC group. 

It's slowly starting to heat up in the GC group. Bahrain is still leading, followed by Ineos. 

Covi is keeping a good tempo and holding a 2'20" gap with less than 10km to go. Only time will tell if he can keep it going to the line. 

Davide Formolo (UAE Team Emirates) is losing contact in the break. 

Covi is 1km away from the intermediate sprint point at Malga Ciapela. His gap has decreased because of the accelerations in the chase group, now 1'45" with 6km to go. 

5km to go

Covi is starting the steepest part of the Passo Fedaia with a gap of 1'45". Meanwhile, Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) decides to attack out of the peloton. Maybe he's bored? Maybe he thinks he can turn it all around. 

Interestingly, Novak has attacked out of the breakaway and is in pursuit of Covi. Bahrain are looking for the stage win today, along with Landa's quest to win the overall. 

Pavel Sivakov (Ineos Grenadiers) has taken over the front of the peloton. 

Domen Novak (Bahrain Victorious) rides under the 4km to go banner about 300 metres behind Covi. He's about a minute back. 

The pace is doing some damage. Nibali is starting to struggle. Landa is isolated. It looks like we have a race now. 

Guillaume Martin is out the back with a handful of other riders after his earlier attack. 

Novak is getting closer and closer to Covi. He's just 40 seconds back with 3km to go. 

Here come the attacks! Hindley starts it off and Carapaz is straight on his wheel.

Lennard Kämna (Bora - Hansgrohe) has dropped back to help Hindley. Carapaz is still there, but Landa is losing ground. 

Carapaz is suffering! He's losing ground to the two Bora riders. 

Hindley sees this and makes another acceleration. Right now, the maglia rosa is going to Hindley with just around 2km left to climb. 

Hindley has around 20 seconds on Carapaz now, who looks to be getting back into a rhythm. 

Meanwhile at the front, Covi has 1km to go and Novak is 30 seconds behind. 

Covi looks to have this one in the bag! He has less than 1km to go on stage 20. 

Hindley is riding through hoards of tifosi and on his way to glory. He's extending his lead to 40 seconds now. 

Alessandro Covi (UAE Team Emirates) will win stage 20 of the Giro d'Italia! 

Novak is second and Ciccone will take third. 

Hindley continues to power up the climb and looks unstoppable with the motivation of knowing he's going to take the maglia rosa at the end of this stage. He's in the final few hundred metres and has put about a minute on Carapaz. 

Barring issue, Hindley will take the Giro d'Italia tomorrow. Landa could be riding himself into second. Carapaz is in real difficulty.

Jai Hindley is the new leader of the Giro d'italia, putting more than a minute into Richard Carapaz before the final time trial in Verona. Read how it all went down in our full report by Patrick Fletcher. 

Winner of stage 20 of the Giro d'Italia is Alessandro Covi (UAE Team Emirates).

And Jai Hindley (Bora - Hansgrohe) will be wearing the maglia rosa in tomorrow's final stage of this year's edition of the Giro d'Italia. He leads GC by 1'25" ahead of Richard Carapaz (Ineos). Mikel Landa (Bahrain Victorious) is third at 1'51". 

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