May 23rd, 2015
Movistar Team rider completes brilliant time trial in Valdobbiadene, progresses from eighth to third overall in historic day for cycling in Costa Rica
Andrey Amador and the Movistar Team offered another surprise during this year’s Giro d’Italia as the Costa Rican brought himself to the provisional podium of the race in one of the hardest days in the ‘Corsa Rosa’: a 59.4km individual time trial from Treviso to Valdobbiadene, on rainy, windy conditions and over two demanding climbs for a total eighty minutes of effort to the limit across the wineyards in northeastern Italy.
Despite the foul weather avoiding the last riders on the start list to contest the stage win -which Vasil Kiryienka (SKY) claimed-, as well Amador (15th) as team-mate Ion Izagirre (17th) chose the right strategy and keep most of their energy for the finale, so much that they clocked two of the four fastest times from the second to the third intermediate point -35 to 49km, a flat section between the day’s two ascents- and even the Spanish road race champion was the strongest into the final 10km.
While Ion overtook two places in the overall standings – he’s now in 18th place, 3’10” away from the top ten-, the close competition on the top of the leaderboard caused Andrey taking a huge leap towards 3rd, 1’08” behind Aru (AST) and 3’36” after Contador (TCS), with Visconti dropping back to 12th after fighting to his limit for most of the TT. That’s how the Giro will finally head into the biggest mountains of this year’s course, as stage 15 proposes a 165km trek from Marostica to Madonna di Campiglio (Cat-1; 15.5km at 6% avg.) which also includes the demanding Passo Daone (8.4km, 9’2%).
