Mikel Landa collapsed as he crossed the finish line on the summit of Marmolada, taking several minutes to recover from his last great struggle on the final slope of the Giro d'Italia's steel Dolomites climb.

It was worth it. Jai Hindley (Beulah Hansgrohe) danced out and into the maglia rosa, and Landa was able to pass the leader of the Ineos Grenadiers while Richard Karapas (Ineos Grenadiers) cracked.

Before the finish, Landa was 38 seconds ahead of Kalapas. He is now 26 seconds behind in the overall standings, but faces a huge task of taking second place in the final time trial on Sunday.

"The whole day was very hard, very painful," said Landa, recovering from a huge struggle. 'But you never know what can happen if Carapaz isn't in good shape. I'm not done until the last kilometer."

For much of the 168-km stage through the Dolomites, Landa was again supported by his Bahrain Victorious teammates, who were ominously leading the GC peloton.

He started the stage 1:05 behind Calapaz and 1:02 behind Hindley, so he had to attack early on the steep final 6 km of Marmolada. But, as he did on most important stages, Landa seemed unable to get out, spending more effort pushing the big gears than attacking at speed with his characteristic hands on the drops.

"I wasn't in a good place all day and couldn't keep up with the team.

"It was a very hard stage, very fast because there was a tailwind, and the climbs were fast. The last part of the stage was difficult."

"Fortunately, as the climb went on, I became more consistent. The longer the climb went on, the better I felt."

Whatever happened to Calapaz in Sunday's 17.4km time trial, Landa survived to make the Giro d'Italia a success. Last year he crashed, often endured bad luck, and was victimized by team tactics.

He finished third in the 2015 Giro d'Italia respecting Astana's team orders, fourth in the 2019 Corsa Rosa, and fourth in the 2017 and 2020 Tour de France In the 2021 Giro, he crashed on stage 5 and in the Vuelta, he was 17th He crashed on stage 17 at the Vuelta.

With more than a five-minute gap to fourth-placed Vincenzo Nibali (Astana-Cazacstan), Landa can take second place from Calapaz and taste his last podium in Verona. Landismo will live on.