Two-time Tour de France champion Tadej Pogačar has all but secured a maiden overall victory at the Giro d'Italia with another devastating stage victory on Saturday.
Pogačar once again destroyed his rivals in the mountains to claim a sixth stage win out of 20 and extend his already considerable advantage to nearly 10 minutes overall.
He has only Sunday's mainly ceremonial ride in Rome to confirm the triumph.
"I have never been in Rome before but I'm going to enjoy it for sure," Pogačar said with a smile.
The Slovenian cycling star has dominated the Giro in style.
He was all smiles as he soloed to victory following an attack on Monte Grappa.
The UAE Team Emirates rider sat up, waved to the crowds as they roared him on, stretched out his arms and bowed as he crossed the line.
Pogačar finished the 184-kilometre leg from Alpago to Bassano del Grappa two minutes, seven seconds ahead of Valentin Paret-Peintre and Daniel Martinez.
That saw him extend his overall winning advantage to 9:56 over Martinez and 10:24 over third-placed Geraint Thomas.
Ben O'Connor is in fourth place, 12:07 down.
That winning margin is the largest at any of cycling's grand tours since Vittorio Adorni won the Giro by 11:26 in 1965.
Pogačar is attempting to the Giro-Tour double this year, a feat that hasn't been achieved since 1998 by Marco Pantani.
"We had the pink jersey from stage 2, a lot of obligations every day, a lot of things to do all day … today was just another test before summer to see how it is," Pogačar said.
"I wanted to finish the Giro with good mentality, good shape and I think I achieved that. I will enjoy after the Giro and then good preparation."
Pogačar raised his pink bicycle above his head in celebration.
In all reality, the job was finished about a week ago, so dominant has Pogačar been in his first Giro.
He had said he wanted to win the penultimate stage and there was a feeling of inevitability when he set off less than a third of the way into the second ascent of the first-category climb to Monte Grappa.
There were 5.4 kilometres of the brutal climb remaining and Pogačar was 49 seconds behind leader Giulio Pellizzari, who has emerged as a potential future star at this race despite being the youngest in the Giro.
Pogačar caught Pellizzari within 800 meters and, cheered on by huge crowds and miles ahead of everyone else, he crested Monte Grappa with a lead of 1:35 before stretching that on the mostly downhill finish.
The race will transfer to Rome for the largely processional 125-kilometre final leg through the streets of the capital, ending near the Colosseum.
AP/ABC
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