THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MACUGNAGA, Italy — Paolo Tiralongo of Italy finished ahead of overall leader Alberto Contador to win the 19th stage of the Giro d’Italia on Friday.
The pair finished the 209-kilometre ride from Bergamo to Macugnaga together in five hours 26 minutes 27 seconds, after the Italian had led the attack on the final climb to the finish. Vincenzo Nibali was third, three seconds behind.
"Today I wanted to try to give it my all," Tiralongo said. "I felt good and wanted to try and go for the win. At the six-kilometre mark, Alberto said it would be a good time to attack and that’s why I made my break when I did."
Contador extended his lead over Michele Scarponi in the overall standings by 20 seconds to 5:18. Contador has an overall time of 77 hours 11 minutes 24 seconds.
"Today was an extraordinary stage. They were tough roads," Contador said. "When I had the chance I had to attack and that is why I was still able to attack at the end because the legs felt good."
Toronto’s Michael Barry, who rides for Sky Procycling, was 66th in the stage and is 59th overall.
Riders had to battle heavy rain early in the day and then contend with slippery conditions on the roads. By the 20-kilometre mark Jerome Pineau, Matteo Rabottini and Lars Bak led a breakaway group, with Pineau taking the points for the first climb of the day at Mottarone.
As conditions improved Stefano Garzelli, Mickael Cherel and Johann Tschopp caught up on the descent on Mottarone.
With just over 10 kilometres remaining Danilo Di Luca led the peleton as it caught the lead group and the Italian then took the initiative at the start of the final climb to Macugnaga.
Tiralongo was next to attack and opened a lead of more than 20 seconds with less than five kilometres to go.
Contador positioned himself at the front of the chasing pack and attacked over the last kilometre to catch Tiralongo. But with the line in their sights, the Spaniard moved aside to allow his former Astana teammate to cross the line first.
HTC-Highroad riders Craig Lewis of the United States and Italy’s Marco Pinotti had to be taken to hospital after they crashed into a traffic sign.
The pair were taken to a nearby hospital in Domodossola where Lewis was diagnosed with a fractured femur. Pinotto injured his knee and has a suspected fractured collarbone.
"At the hospital in Domodossola. Just spoken with craiglewis85. Just want to say he is conscious and quite fine. We will be rooming together," Pinotti wrote on his Twitter page.
The accident occurred when the peleton was racing at speed in heavy rain about 45 kilometres from the finish. Lewis was treated by race doctor Dr. Giovanni Tredici.
"We found three riders on the ground when we stopped. Two were from HTC-Highroad and one was from Androni Giocattoli," Dr. Tredici said.
"The Androni rider was OK and quickly got back up but the other two were taken to hospital because they seemed to have important injuries."
Riders remain in the mountains for the penultimate stage from Verbania to Sestriere on Saturday. The 21-stage Giro concludes on Sunday with a time trial in Milan.