The 134km stage takes riders across the Alps from Guillestre, in France, to Sant'Anna di Vinadio, in Italy.
It features a remarkable 4,100m rise and drop over the relatively short distance, with a sequence of four climbs, three descents and zero flat stretches in between. While the action will be tense on the climbs, as we saw last night, the overall standings can be rearranged in an instant on the descents.
Course profile for Stage 20 (RCS Sport) Source: RCS Sport
The Category 1 Col de Vars is one of the iconic climbs of the Tour de France (RCS Sport) Source: RCS Sport
Along the climb to the Col de la Bonette the route passes the village of Lans and, just before the summit, the peak of Col de Restefond. Source: RCS Sport
At the village of Isola the road kicks up again, with a 20km ascent to the first-category Colle della Lombarda summit (RCS Sport) Source: RCS Sport
The route climbs steadily over the last 2.3km with gradients ranging from nine to 11 per cent. This road is quite narrow, also with a few hairpins.
The last few hundred metres of the route run among the Sanctuary’s buildings with short uphill stretches and tight bends. The 50 metre home straight is on a six metre-wide asphalt road.
With less than two minutes separating the top four riders in the general classification, Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEDGE), Vincenzo Nibali (Astana), Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo) and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), expect them to fight for every second up each climb and down each descent. With three of these four riders having won a stage in this year’s Giro, and questionable recovery after big efforts and big crashes in Stage 19, the win is still anyone's for the taking.
Stage 19 recap
Chaves rides into overall lead at the Giro d’Italia
Chaves will start the penultimate stage in the Maglia Rosa with a 44 second lead over Nibali, after Kruijswijk surrendered his grip on the overall victory crashing into a wall of snow last night.
This is not the first time Chaves has led a Grand Tour. Last year he led the Vuelta a España for six days (from stages two to four and six to eight) but the race was eventually won by Fabio Aru (Astana) who moved into the lead on the eve of the conclusive stage in Madrid.
Who will handle the pressure? Who will have the freshest legs? Who will grit their teeth and ride out of their skin? Who will be unable to hold on?
And, following a shout out from Orica-GreenEDGE's Backstage Pass producer Dan Jones, who will film their own reactions to the stage as the Australian team give it everything they have to to win their first Grand Tour?
Due to the excitement of this nail-biting, quad-burning, #GiroSnack annihilating final stage the SBS television broadcast has been rescheduled to an earlier start time.
Tune in from 9.20pm on SBS2 before switching over to SBS at 11.15pm.
Follow the action on the Giro Tracker, powered by L'Etape Australia, from 9pm. (All times AEST. Please adjust for your local area.)
