There would be no flatter stage in the 2021 Giro d’Italia than this one. Stage 13’s 198km parcours from Ravenna to Verona barely rose or fell its entire distance, making for high speeds from start to finish.The day’s break wasted no time setting off, and with the trio posing no threat to the GC standings, the peloton was happy to let them go, their lead swelling to 3:40 after 15km of racing, reaching more than six minutes before the peloton and the sprint teams started working to reduce this lead, shrinking to a more manageable three minutes with less than 100km to go.
Peter Sagan was riding with Giovanni Aleotti in the bunch, their pace bringing the break’s advantage to less than two minutes with 50km remaining, and as this lead dipped to twenty-five seconds with 25km to go, it was clear the stage was set for a sprint finish. Making the catch with less than 10km left, there was little chance of a late attack and the sprint teams kept the pace high to ensure this wasn’t the case.
They pushed up the speeds in the final kilometer as the group passed the flamme rouge.
Stage 13 :
- Giacomo Nizzolo
- Edoardo Affini
- Peter Sagan
GC :
- Egan Bernal
- Aleksandr Vlasov +45
- Damiano Caruso +1:12
