Rivarolo, 23rd of May – 2014
The profile and the length of today’s 157 kilometer long 13th stage of this year’s Giro d’Italia from Fossano to Rivarolo Canavese most of all indicated a bunch sprint finish. After yesterday’s consolidation of Rafal Majka’s overall third position, Tinkoff-Saxo were focusing on staying out of crashes and keeping the young Polish rider in front of the pack.
There were quite a lot of crashes during the stage but the Tinkoff-Saxo boys stayed on their bikes the whole day. In front of the pack, Maxim Belkov (Katusha), Marco Canola (Bardiani), Jeffry Corredor (Colombia), Gert Dockx (Lotto-Belisol), Angelo Tulik (Europcar) and Jackson Rodriguez (Androni) formed the breakaway.
The sprinter teams were playing the waiting game too long as they were bluffing, waiting for the other teams to take responsibility as Canola, Tulik and Rodriguez broke clear of the front group and continued in high pace towards he finish line. With three stage wins in the bag already, FDJ took their turn at first but no one joined them and the Colombia team was now desperate to bring them back as panic set in.
But it was all too late and in the sprint among the front trio, Marco Canola (Bardiani) was the fastest and took the stage win. Tinkoff-Saxo’s Rafal Majka finished in the main bunch and is still third overall.
“For a long time it was a game of cat and mouse and it could have ended up in a massive sprinter gallop but as the big sprinter teams were bluffing for too long, the three escapees took the stage. We’re happy about the outcome as we only wanted to stay out of trouble and our biggest concern was the hailstorm shooting down on us in the finale with narrow roads but the boys elegantly went through it and brought Rafal safely across the finish line. Now, we’re facing two big mountain stages and we feel ready for the challenge,” said DS, Lars Michaelsen after the stage.
