(*13*)Einer Rubio received a shortened and weather-affected thirteenth stage of the Giro d’Italia for his first victory in a Grand Tour whereas Geraint Thomas remained in the pink jersey on Friday.
(*13*)Rubio, who rides for Movistar, had time to boost an arm above his head and level to the sky as he crossed the line simply forward of fellow escapees Thibaut Pinot and Alexander Cepeda. They sprinted for victory after a troublesome climb to the summit end at Crans-Montana.
(*13*)“A big day that I was looking for by working very hard,” Rubio stated. “It’s been tough with the dangerous climate. But I needed to hold going. I knew that Pinot was very sturdy. I needed to end with him and play it nicely tactically.
(*13*)“It will take time for me to realize that I won a stage of the Giro d’Italia. I didn’t believe I’d do it.”
(*13*)The route had already been modified earlier in the week when the high of the Passo del Gran San Bernardo was minimize due to snowfall and a danger of avalanches.
(*13*)On Friday morning, it was introduced that that climb could be eliminated fully due to adversarial climate in Italy, and the riders would as an alternative begin previous the midway level and the stage slashed from 199 kilometers to 80 kilometers.
(*13*)Race organizers stated they “decided to meet the athletes’ requests by applying the extreme weather protocol.”
(*13*)That noticed the riders set off at the unique begin in Borgofranco d’Ivrea however, instantly after the impartial zone, they bought off their bicycles and onto workforce buses which took them to the new begin in Switzerland, at the foot of the brutal climb up Croix de Couer.
(*13*)When the day’s racing finally began, Pinot instantly attacked and he was adopted by Cepeda, Rubio and Derek Gee.
(*13*)They had a bonus of practically two minutes on the total leaders once they crossed the snow-covered summit of the Croix de Couer and prolonged that to almost three minutes at the foot of the closing climb.
(*13*)Pinot and Cepeda took turns to assault close to the high of the climb however Rubio quietly caught with them earlier than accelerating in the closing few hundred meters.
(*13*)The principal contenders for the total title rolled throughout 1 minute, 35 seconds behind. Thomas remained two seconds forward of Primoz Roglic and 22 forward of Joao Almeida.
(*13*)“We stayed calm when a small group went in the first climb,” Thomas stated. “We stayed in management with Ben Swift and Pavel Sivakov setting the tempo. Great trip by them.
(*13*)“The way it went at the end made it quite hard to attack. But Primoz is probably happy to leave me in the maglia rosa for a few more days. I expect something more from him next week.”
(*13*)Saturday’s 14th stage has a top-category climb close to the begin in Sierre however — after the descent — is then nearly completely flat on the remainder of the 193-kilometer path to Cassano Magnago.
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