ILNUR ZAKARIN OF Katusha soloed to a snow-capped summit finish victory on a chaotic 13th stage of the Giro d’Italia on Friday that shook up the overall picture.
The Russian thereby climbs to third in the overall standings, which is where the now 29-year-old finished on the 2017 Giro.
Slovenia’s Jan Polanc of Team UAE kept hold of the overall lead as favourites another Slovene Primoz Roglic and Italian Vincenzo Nibali crossed the line together 2min 57sec adrift, with Briton Simon Yates and Colombian Miguel Angel Lopez another two minutes back.
On this first summit reckoning in a mountain-packed second section of the Giro, the peloton climbed to 2237m altitude, with Zakarin dropping Spain’s Mikel Nieve in the final section and beating him by 35sec at the panoramic finishing post in the Gran Paradiso national park.
Movistar pair Mikel Landa and Richard Carapaz came third and fourth on a great day for the Spanish team as Dutchman Bauke Mollema climbed to fourth in the overall with his fifth place on the day.
#Giro 102 Stage 13 | #Giro 102 Tappa 13
— Giro d'Italia (@giroditalia) May 24, 2019
🥇 @IlnurZakarin - @katushacycling
🥈 @NieveMikel - @MitcheltonSCOTT
🥉 @MikelLandaMeana - @Movistar_Team pic.twitter.com/jQSC6Qy9N8
The two favourites, Roglic of Jumbo-Visma and two-time Giro winner Nibali of Bahrain, kept close tabs on each other all day with both men taking frequent turns to test each other.
Colombian hope Miguel Angel Lopez of Astana, who was third on last year’s Giro, had been leading that pair until he suffered yet another mechanical cost him precious initiative.
But the day’s biggest loser, over five minutes behind Zakarin, was Simon Yates, a Briton who rides for Mitchelton-Scott, whose pre-race bravado will haunt him after declaring himself the man to beat.
Eddie Dunbar’s Team Ineos, formerly Sky, had a mixed day, losing 24-year-old climber Tao Geoghegan Hart to an early crash, but seeing their 21-year-old Russian climber Pavel Sivakov finish ninth to climb into the overall top 10 and shoot to the top of the young rider white jersey standings.
Saturday’s stage looks even tougher with five climbs and 4,000m elevation on the menu. The penultimate climb, the Colle San Marco is 10.5km with an average gradient of 9.8 percent.
Gavan Casey is joined by Ryan Bailey and Andy Dunne to look ahead to Saturday’s Pro14 final, look at whether Joey Carbery’s move has paid off and Jack Conan talks about how his body is holding up:
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What a team. 3 in a row. A touch of class.
@An Observer2: fishing?
@Darkness: Not at all,
Has to go down as the best team this turn of the millennium
Cheats….
@Desmond Cassidy: cheats how?? Did they buy Karius fur Liverpool and put him in goal and persuade klopp not to do anything about it for the last 3 seasons??
@Pj Windgap: they’re sour, leave em be!;)
@Desmond Cassidy: ha ha cheats bitter much
@Desmond Cassidy: shut up
Fair play. Some team