Never before have the top four riders at the Giro d'Italia all been within 53 seconds of each other going into the penultimate stage. That all changed in Saturday's seesaw battle on Stage 20 between the GC contenders aggressively attacking all day long and Tom Dumoulin fighting to limit his losses.

In the end, Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) captured the stage victory and a 10-second time bonus to solidify his position in a four-way struggle for the pink jersey with race leader Nairo Quintana (Movistar), Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain Merida), and Dumoulin (Team Sunweb), who finished 15 seconds back, heading into Sunday's time trial finale in Milan. Quintana will take a 39-second advantage over Nibali into the conclusive stage. Pinot rose to third overall at 43 seconds back, while Dumoulin now trails by 53 seconds in fourth place.

On the last mountain stage of this year's Giro, the peloton began its ascent of Monte Grappa with many teams highly motivated to make it difficult. Katusha-Alpecin sent its squad to the front to keep the pace high. Under the pressure of the team working for Ilnur Zakarin, the peloton splintered. It broke down to 30 riders when Zakarin rode up onto the wheel of his man leading the race. The attack was made, and the lead group quickly dropped down to eight riders. Some notable contenders who cracked were Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) and Adam Yates (Orica-Scott). Once Katusa-Alpecin used up its domestiques, the pace dropped significantly. It was clear that all of the favorites were content in allowing the 2017 Giro d'Italia to be decided on the day's final climb.

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Coming over the summit at Monte Grappa, the peloton regrouped. Movistar was at the front calmly making their way down the 26km descent. Similar to the previous stage, it appeared that everyone was waiting to allow more domestiques to get back in. It was a Belgium party in the break. Dylan Teuns (BMC) and Dries Devenyns (Quick-Step Floors) pulled out a lead of close to three minutes by the time they reached the bottom of the final climb.

Movistar led the way up the 14km ascent. Pinot was sitting on Quintana's wheel with Nibali and Dumoulin right behind. Nibali made the first big attack. Movistar was able to close it down, but after looking behind and seeing space to other riders, Nibali continued to accelerate. Quintana, Pozzovivo, Pinot, and Zakarin were all holding the wheel of the Italian rider. Dumoulin was in difficulty but worked his way back to the leaders.

Nibali looked frustrated with the lack of cooperation, exchanging words with Zakarin when he wouldn't work hard. Clearly the Katusha-Alpecin rider was just biding his time. The place slowed, and the group again swelled to around 15. Right when everyone was looking around, Zakarin made a huge attack. He caught the favorites off guard, and only Pozzovivo went with him. Unfortunately for Zakarin, Pozovivo was giving him no assistance. We've seen this throughout the Giro. Pozzovivo has done well to get himself into the right moves but has sat on the wheel and refused too many turns.

With that dangerous pair disappearing up the road, Quintana decided it couldn't be allowed to escape. Nibali managed to follow his wheel, and it became a battle of pairs at the front of the race. FDJ had a few riders behind who were trying to do damage control, but they quickly expended their energy. Dumoulin was trying to organize the group, but the majority of the chase was going to rely on himself, Pinot, and Bob Jungles (Quick-Step Floors).

Pinot attacked the chasers to join Nibali and Quintana, but Dumoulin was riding well behind and steadily closing the gap. Time was running out with only 4km remaining on the climb. Quintana put in another attack on the steepest section to slightly gain a few more seconds on the chasers led by Dumoulin and Jungles. Just as the two groups came back together with less than 3km left on the climb, Pinot attacked again. The climbers in this group recognized the danger. Quintana and Nibali followed the Frenchman's move, and they once again dropped Dumoulin.

Zakarin and Pozzovivo summited the Foza climb 15 seconds ahead of the trio chasing. The gap back to the Dumoulin group was an additional 15 seconds. With 10km to go, Zakarin and Pozzovivo were caught by Nibali, Quintana, and Pinot. At that crucial point of the race, the cooperation briefly fell apart. It appeared that Dumoulin and Jungles would shut down the lead, but finally the leaders began working well again.

Going into the final kilometer, you could see the bonus seconds at the finish were leading to some tactical decision making. Quintana was riding into the final 300m when Pozzovivo launched his sprint. Pinot came around with a huge surge to take his first Giro stage win ahead of Zakarin and Nibali.

Complete 2017 Giro d'Italia Results

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Place	Rider Name (Country) Team	Result
1	Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ	4:57:58
2	Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin
3	Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Bahrain-Merida
4	Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale
5	Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team
6	Bob Jungels (Lux) Quick-Step Floors	0:00:15
7	Adam Yates (GBr) Orica-Scott
8	Sébastien Reichenbach (Swi) FDJ
9	Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek-Segafredo
10	Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Sunweb
General classification after stage 20
Place	Rider Name (Country) Team	Result
1	Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team	90:00:38
2	Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Bahrain-Merida	0:00:39
3	Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ	0:00:43
4	Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Sunweb	0:00:53
5	Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin	0:01:15
6	Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale	0:01:30
7	Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek-Segafredo	0:03:03
8	Adam Yates (GBr) Orica-Scott	0:06:50
9	Bob Jungels (Lux) Quick-Step Floors	0:07:18
10	Davide Formolo (Ita) Cannondale-Drapac	0:12:55

More 2017 Giro d'Italia Coverage

• Stage 20 Recap
• Stage 20 Results
• Complete Giro Results
• Tom Dumoulin Was The Real Winner On Stage 20
• Tom Dumoulin And Vincenzo Nibali Getting Heated At The Giro
• Mikel Landa Wins Big For Team Sky
• Tejay Van Garderen Redeems Himself With Giro Stage Win
• Tom Dumoulin Loses Time During Emergency Bathroom Break
• More Giro Articles