Chris Froome stands on the precipice of greatness as he closes in on becoming the first British cyclist to win the Giro d'Italia in its century-long history.
Today’s final stage in Rome is all that stands between the 33-year-old and an historic Giro triumph, a feat that will see him add to his 2017 Tour de France and Vuelta a Espana crowns, and see him become only the third man to hold all three Grand Tour titles simultaneously.
At the conclusion of Saturday’s penultimate stage leading into Cervinia, Froome held a 46-second lead over the Netherlands’ Tom Dumoulin and looks set for victory. All he needs to do now is negotiate one processional stage to the finish in Rome and the Maglia Rosa will be his.
“It is a very special win,” said Froome.
“I know it is not over until Rome but the battle is over now – there were so many moments when it was extremely hard.
“Obviously the crash right before the prologue in Jerusalem really knocked my confidence, and I was in a lot of pain after that.
“And there were also days where I should have finished in front and I didn’t, and I lost time, so there have been so many hurdles to overcome.
“As we have seen from some, when you have a bad day in these last few days of the Giro, you don’t just lose minutes, you can lose tens of minutes.
“But my team-mates and the support staff believed in me.
“They said: ‘wait, this race is brutal and you are going to get to the last few days and the race can really change’ – and it did.”
Froome’s Giro campaign has been a stirring comeback story, with the Team Sky rider having been through the mill in previous rounds.
He suffered a blow before the racing had even began, crashing heavily in Jerusalem while out recceing the course ahead of the first time trial.
With fellow Brit Simon Yates dominating proceedings, it took until stage 14 for Froome to truly make his mark, winning on Monte Zoncolan to move up to fifth in the general classification.
Yates’ lead was cut by Dumoulin in the time trial on stage 16 and then, on stage 19, Froome roared to a superb victory courtesy of a stunning attack 80km from the finish in Bardonecchia, with Yates falling away.
On the road to Cervinia, Froome came under attack three times by Dumoulin but he held firm to keep himself on the path to glory. Now all that stands in his way is ten loops of an 11.5km circuit - starting and finishing in Rome - with the final 700m straight set to be the one to confirm his destiny. Sportsbeat 2018