Primoz Roglic will be crowned Giro d'Italia champion on Sunday after snatching the overall lead from Britain's Geraint Thomas on the penultimate stage of the three-week race.
Slovenian rider Roglic overcame brief mechanical trouble to win the 18.6km mountain time-trial by an emphatic 40 seconds from Thomas and take a 14-second lead into Sunday's largely processional race around Rome.
Thomas, who was bidding to become the oldest winner of the race at 37, is set to finish second, with Portugal's Joao Almeida poised to fill out the podium.
Speaking to Eurosport after congratulating Roglic, Thomas said: "If you'd told me in February or March [I'd be second] I'd have bitten your hand off but now I'm devastated.
"I could feel my legs going a kilometre and a half from the top. I don't want to make excuses but I didn't feel like I had that real grunt.
"It was nice to lose by that much rather than a second or two. That would be worse. At least he smashed me. Primoz deserves that, he had a mechanical and he put 40 seconds into me. Chapeau."
Jumbo-Visma rider Roglic clocked a time of 44 minutes and 23 seconds on Saturday and was roared on by his compatriots with the stage held just a few miles from the Slovenian border.
The 33-year-old extended his lead over Thomas, of Ineos Grenadiers, to 16 seconds halfway up the climb, before hitting a pothole and dropping his chain.
Roglic, the Vuelta a Espana winner in 2019, 2020 and 2021, lost time while changing bikes but regrouped to prevail in a brutal stage which had 1,050 metres of climbing packed into the last 9.8km.
He lost the 2020 Tour de France on the final competitive day of racing, surrendering his lead and the overall race victory to fellow Slovenian Tadej Pogacar.
The leader said: "It's just something amazing. It's not in the end about the win but the people and the energy here. It's so incredible, really moments to live and remember. I had the legs and the people gave me extra watts.
There's one more day to go, one more focus because I think the lap [in Rome] is quite technical. It's not over until it's finished but it looks good."
