Gilbert captures penultimate stage of Giro d'Italia

BELGIUM'S Philippe Gilbert blitzed his way to victory in stage 20 of the Giro d'Italia with a powerful attack two kilometres from the finishing line.

The 26-year-old Silence-Lotto rider launched his attack on the final climb of the relatively flat 203km stage from Naples to Anagni.

He was tracked by Astana's Yaroslav Popovych and Thomas Voeckler of BBOX Bouygues Telecom but neither could live with Gilbert in the final kilometre.

The race for la maglia rosa will go down to the wire in the 14km time trial in Rome on Sunday, after both current leader Denis Menchov and home favourite Danilo Di Luca finished in peleton.

With an uphill finish, Di Luca had been expected to close the gap on Menchov but actually conceded two seconds to the Russian - who extended his lead to 20 seconds, courtesy of a second-place finish in one of the intermediate sprints.

Menchov, a more accomplished time trialist, should have the edge in the Eternal City but with rain forecast, Di Luca is still in contention to overhaul his rival.

Great Britain's Ben Swift was among the early leaders but they had been reeled in by the LPR Brakes-led peleton with 48km to go.

Paolo Tiranlong and Bartosz Hurzarski both made significant breaks but were caught on the finishing circuit as Gilbert raced over the line.