Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) underlined that no one deserves the Giro win as much as him when he powered convincingly away from his rivals on the very steep Tre Cime di Lavaredo climb in today's queen stage of the Giro d'Italia. Behind the superior Italian Rigoberto Uran (Sky) dropped Cadel Evans (BMC) to finish 3rd and move into 2nd in GC while Evans fought hard to save his podium spot.

Several Italian media representatives had suggested that Vincenzo Nibali should win one of the mythical mountain stages in the Dolomites to make his expected Giro win memorable. Today the Italian did just that when he proved his superiority on the torturous slopes of the Tre Cime di Lavaredo by simply riding away from all of his rivals and capping off his Giro campaign with his second consecutive stage win.

Very early on it was clear that Nibali was in a class of his own but behind there was a hard fight for the remaining podium spots. Having been dropped early on, Cadel Evans almost got back to the Colombian trio of Carlos Betancur (Ag2r), Rigoberto Uran and Fabio Duarte (Colombia) but he went too deep too early and ended up fading and getting passed by numerous riders. He was unable to keep Uran from moving into 2nd but despite seeing Michele Scarponi (Lampre) ride past him, he managed to save his spot on the podium.

The drama started at the bottom of the Tre Croci climb with a little more than 20km to go. The early break of Pavel Brutt (Katusha), Adam Hansen (Lotto), Yaroslav Popovych (Radioshack) and Giairo Ermeti exploded as the Russian rode away from his companions.

Behind the Cannondale was setting a hard tempo at the front of the peloton to set up an in-form Damiano Caruso up for the win. Cristiano Salerno set such a hard tempo that the peloton splintered as soon as they hit the lower slopes of the climb.

The first to attack was Pieter Weening (Orica-GreenEdge) and he was joined by Wilco Kelderman (Blanco), Caruso and Robert Kiserlovski (Radioshack). However, Weening simply rode away from his companions to continue on his own in pursuit of the lone Brutt.

The trio was picked up by a 25-rider peloton which was now being led by Gorka Verdugo (Euskaltel) who was fighting to position Samuel Sanchez well for the final climb. The next to try their hands were Stefano Pirazzi (Bardiani) and Darwin Atapuma (Colombia) but very quickly the KOM leader had to let the Colombian go to fall back into the peloton. Atapuma was also quickly brought back into the fold.

Betancur had had a puncture close to the bottom and had faced a long chase to get back on. He now had to change his bike and just at that moment Saxo-Tinkoff decided to up the pace as Bruno Pires took over from Verdugo at the front.

Betancur just managed to join the back end of the peloton when Pires dropped off and instead it was his captain Rafal Majka (Saxo-Tinkoff) who made a short acceleration. As soon as he stopped his effort, Pirazzi attacked again while up ahead Brutt crested the summit of the climb 26 seconds ahead of Weening.

Just over the top Gianluca Brambilla (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) and Eros Capecchi (Movistar) escaped and they joined up with Weening and Pirazzi to form a chasing quartet. Pirazzi was careful on the wet descent and fell off while behind Valerio Agnoli gently negotiated the descent to bring his captain Nibali safely down to the bottom of the final climb.

On the lower slopes of the hostile Tre Cime di Lavaredo climb, it was all over for Brutt who passed by the leading trio and soon after Capecchi simply rode away from his companions. Meanwhile, Agnoli kept a steady tempo at the front of the peloton while his teammates Fabio Aru, Tanel Kangert and Nibali were safely tucked in behind.

Atapuma launched a new attack and was later joined by Kiserlovski who had also saved some energy for another offensive. Meanwhile, Capecchi was the first rider to hit the incredibly steep final 4km of the climb.

With 3,1km Nibali himself decided to up the pace and for a moment he and teammate Kangert were able to gap the rest of the peloton. Scarponi drew the main group back together but moments later Nibali made another acceleration.

This time only Majka, Betancur and Uran was able to follow the race leader while behind Evans fought hard to get back. Majka's presence was, however, short-lived and he exploded in second position and forced Betancur to accelerate to close the gap.

Nibali then tried to up the pace for the third time and now nobody was able to keep up. He simply rode away from all of his rivals while he passed all of the remaining escapees. With 2,4km to go he reached Capecchi and was now alone in the lead.

Behind, Uran and Betancur formed a Colombian chase duo while Majka had been passed by Duarte and Evans. Scarponi was struggling a little further behind with Franco Pellizotti (Androni) and Domenico Pozzovivo (Ag2r).

Evans and Duarte gradually reduced the advantage of Uran and Betancur but just as they were about to get back on, the Australian exploded. While Duarte joined his compatriots, Evans faded and was quickly passed by a number of riders. The same happened to Majka who had to see his white jersey aspirations being crushed by an impressive Betancur.

It was now every man for himself as the riders were now one and one all over the road - except the Colombian trio which stuck together. They kept losing time to Nibali who was in a league of his own and soloed across the line to take a dominant win.

17 seconds later Duarte sprinted across the line 2 seconds ahead of Uran while Betancur - who had clearly struggled on the last kilometer - finished a further two seconds adrift. The next to cross the line was Nibali's young teammate Aru who had gauged his effort perfectly and passed many riders on the final part of the climb.

Evans had been passed by Scarponi and his teammate Przemyslaw Niemiec but the Australian managed to limit his losses to save his 3rd place behind Nibali and Uran. Scarponi stays in 4th place while Betancur moves into 5th and takes over the white jersey from Majka.

The two big losers were Mauro Santambrogio (Vini Fantini) and Sanchez. The former was dropped early on but managed to limit his losses to save an overall 9th place while the latter was unable to finish off a hard day's work from his team and finished around 2 minutes behind Nibali.

The Astana leader now only needs to get safely through tomorrow's flat, largely ceremonial stage into Brescia to be crowned the winner of the Giro d'Italia. With his win he also takes over the lead in the points competition 11 points ahead of Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) but the Maxman has a good chance to take back the red jersey in the expected bunch sprint tomorrow.

Starting at 14.15 you can follow the battle for the points jersey on CyclingQuotes.com/live as the Giro comes to an end in Brescia.

An aggressive start

The 210km stage from Silandro to the top of the Tre Cime Di Lavaredo should have taken the riders over three huge mountains on their way to the bottom of the final crucial ascent but bad weather had forced the organizers to take all those hostilities out of the course. Instead the riders travelled along gradually rising valley roads from the start city to the bottom of the ascent.

Many teams knew that today was the final chance to pick up a stage win and so the start was an aggressive one. No less than 51km were covered in the first hour before Brutt, Hansen, Ermeti and Popovych were finally allowed to set off.

Euskaltel chases

The peloton took a short breather while the gap increased beyond the 8 minute mark but very soon Euskaltel showed that Sanchez was ambitious today. The team put Robert Vrecer on the front and he started to stabilize the gap.

A little later he got assistance from the Omega Pharma-Quick Step trio of Brambilla, Iljo Keisse and Julien Vermote as the Belgian team wanted to bring it back together for the two intermediate sprints. However, they quickly realized that it would be better to save the energy for tomorrow's sprint stage and instead they left it to Euskaltel to do most of the early work.

The gap comes down

Vrecer was assisted by teammate Ioannis Tamouridis while there was clearly plenty of concentration in the peloton as all the big teams very early in the stage kept together near the front. The gap started to come down a little and when Ricardo Mestre also joined the chase, the advantage fell below 6 minutes.

As the peloton passed through the feed zone, the gap was allowed to grow back up to a little more than 7 minutes but that only forced Colombia and Ag2r to react. With Duarte and Betancur as possible stage winners, the put Wilson Marentes, Leonardo Duque and Guillaume Bonnafond on the front and the gap now started to come down rapidly.

Cavendish vs. Andriato

A little drama happened at the first intermediate sprint with 54km to go. The breakaway had picked up most of the points but Cavendish wanted to bolster his tally by taking the last two. However, the leader of the sprints classification Rafael Andriato (Vini Fantini) also wanted those points and a clearly frustrated Cavendish had to dig deep to edge out the Brazilian for the points.

With 39km to go, the riders started to head down a 16km descent to the bottom of the final climb, and Cannondale now moved to the front to keep up the speed as they headed down towards the city of Cortina d'Ampezzo. Up ahead, Popovych gapped his companions and he started to climb as the lone race leader.

The climbing begins

Cavendish made sure to pick up another two points in the intermediate sprint at the bottom of the climb while disaster struck for Betancur. The Colombian had to chase hard and only got back on some kilometres up the climb.

Popovych was passed by Brutt and Hansen on the lower slopes and moments later it was all over for Hansen who had to let the Russian go. At the same time, the attacks started to go off from the peloton, thus starting a thrilling battle on the torturous climb.

Result:

1. Vincenzo Nibali 5.27.41

2. Fabio Duarte +0.17

3. Rigoberto Uran +0.19

4. Carlos Betancur +0.21

5. Fabio Aru +0.44

6. Franco Pellizotti +0.48

7. Domenico Pozzovivo +0.54

8. Damiano Caruso +0.58

9. Darwin Atapuma +1.00

10. Rafal Majka +1.04

General classification:

1. Vincenzo Nibali 79.23.19

2. Rigoberto Uran +4.43

3. Cadel Evans +5.52

4. Michele Scarponi +6.48

5. Carlos Betancur +7.28

6. Przemyslaw Niemiec +7.43

7. Rafal Majka +8.09

8. Benat Intxausti +10.26

9. Mauro Santambrogio +10.32

10. Domenico Pozzovivo +10.59

Points classification:

1. Vincenzo Nibali 128

1. Mark Cavendish 117

3. Cadel Evans 111

4. Carlos Betancur 108

5. Rigoberto Uran 102

Mountains classification:

1. Stefano Pirazzi 82

2. Giovanni Visconti 45

3. Vincenzo Nibali 45

4. Jackson Rodriguez 41

5. Carlos Betancur 37

Youth classification:

1. Carlos Betancur 79.30.47

2. Rafal Majka +0.41

3. Wilco Kelderman +12.06

4. Darwin Atapuma +19.50

5. Diego Rosa +32.55

Teams classification:

1. Team Sky 238.03.58

2. Astana +4.29

3. Movistar +7.27

4. Lampre +10.35

5. Blanco +15.06