Astana's Vincenzo Nibali has said that he never gives up after riding himself into the lead of the 99th Giro D'Italia with a stage to go.
Nibali said after his sixth place on stage 19: "I thought maybe everything was lost but also maybe that it still wasn’t over.
"The last week can change and I thought something could happen.
"I’m very headstrong, I never give up. Last year at the Tour I had bad days but I always try and come back.
"It was a crazy Giro. A difficult, exhausting one for me. I started as the favourite and felt all the pressure. I had a lot of pressure on my shoudlers but I’ve put on this great show, so I’m happy."
Esteban Chaves of Orica GreenEdge, who lost his Pink jersey and is now 52 seconds down said: “I’m tired but that's life. It is only a bike race. I tried and did the best I could. The team did the best they could. I’m here, I’m happy, I did my best, I tried and this is the beginning for me.
“I’m OK [health-wise]. I don’t have excuses. I didn’t have the legs and that is normal. You need strength to do this. It was one race of 80 hours and 3,000km and there are no excuses. The only simple answer is that I had no legs.
“It is the beginning for me and for sure other opportunities will come.”
Stage twenty winner Rein Taaramae said: : "Ilnur Zakarin’s crash yesterday scared me a lot. I was close to him. I saw everything. The thought crossed my mind that something very serious could have occurred, but when I saw him sitting up, I was relieved. It was hard to go and race again today after that but I also wanted to win this stage for Zakarin. I didn’t feel good at the beginning of the stage. I was the last rider to catch the breakaway. On La Bonette, above 2000 metres, I started feeling good, so I rode away on La Lombarda at the highest possible altitude. I had six weeks of altitude training and it paid off".