Dan Martin has gained time on many of his general classification rivals at the Giro d'Italia and barring a collapse tomorrow he will finish in the top 10 of the Italian Grand Tour.
If he can hold his place - he is currently 10th - it would mean he has finished in the top 10 of all three Grand Tours and claimed stages in all three; a fantastic career achievement.
Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation) wasn't able to stay with the very best climbers on the summit finish today. But he still finished in 6th place and gained time on many of the riders he is vying with in the overall. He lost only seconds to race leader Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers).
Nicolas Roche also rode well today after his breakaway heroics and 3rd place of yesterday. He placed his Team DSM leader Romain Bardet perfectly at the front of the select group at the base of the final climb and then rode in to the finish. Roche finished in 79th at 22:39.
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The early breakaway was caught at the base of the final climb, the 9.6km Alpe di Mera with an average gradient of nine per cent. That set up a perfect climbing battle between race leader Bernal and Simon Yates of BikeExchange, who now looks the strongest in the race.
Leading into the climb, BikeExchange drove the pace on the front for Yates, with Deceuninck-QuickStep joining them, working for João Almeida. Yates attacked with almost 7km to go and though he rode away from Bernal, the Colombian stayed calm and limited his losses very well.
At one point on the final climb almost all of the general classification men had ridden away from Bernal, who was aided in a calm but strong chase by team mates Daniel Martínez and Jonathan Castroviejo. When they were done, Bernal took it up himself in pursuit of Yates, with Almeida on his wheel.
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As the finish approached, Bernal had caught and passed everyone bar Yates, who won the stage solo. Almeida attacked Bernal in the final kilometre and took 2nd place 11 seconds down on Yates. Bernal was 3rd at 28 seconds but he definitely looked vulnerable today. Dan Martin was 6th, finishing just 14 seconds behind Bernal.
The way Almeida was able to close the gap to Yates so rapidly at the last strongly suggested Yates was spent, like Bernal, at the finish. And though Yates now looks stronger than Bernal, the difference between the two is perhaps not as great as many think. We will know for certain tomorrow.
Of the nine riders ahead of Dan Martin overall, he lost time to five today and gained time on the other four. However, the gaps to those ahead of him, and behind, on GC are large. It would take a truly spectacular performance - or explosion - for Martin's position to change in the overall by the time the race finishes in Milan on Sunday.
Bernal leads the race by 2:29 from Damiano Caruso (Bahrain-Victorious), who was 4th today. Yates is 3rd overall at 2:49 and will be fancied to leapfrog Caruso tomorrow on what is a big final day in the mountains ahead of Sunday's concluding TT.
Yates needs to go long tomorrow and try and take the fight to Bernal very early. Ineos Grenadiers have been excellent at limiting Bernal's losses when he has faltered and they could prove the difference again tomorrow.
BikeExchange are nowhere near as strong so Yates must try to isolate Bernal early. And that really means going for broke on the penultimate climb of three. If Simon Yates wants to win the Giro, and is willing to put everything on the line, he cannot afford to wait until the final climb to the summit finish.
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