Fernando Gaviria completes hattrick of wins at Giro 100 on stage 12
Ciclamino jersey holder Fernando Gaviria (Quick-Step Floors) completed a hattrick of stage wins at Giro 100 with a comfortable victory on the longest stage of the race.
Gaviria finished well ahead of rivals Sam Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe), Andre Greipel (Lotto-Soudal) and Caleb Ewan (Orica-Scott), as the Colombian once again asserted himself as the best sprinter at Giro 100.
Jakub Mareczko (Wilier Selle Italia), Sam Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Phil Bauhaus (Team Sunweb) weren't a challenge to Gaviria in the end, with his own lead out man, Maximiliano Richeze (Quick-Step Floors), taking fifth.
Gaviria was modest in victory, respecting his rival, Greipel: "I'm not sure I'm the best, Andre Greipel is the best - he has more victories in his career - but I'm the one with the most victories at this Giro. I've got better form which is why I have three wins."
Gaviria's teammate, Davide Martinelli, said: "I think we did a really good job to hold Gaviria in the right position, we judged everything well and Richeze launched him absolutely perfectly and Fernando finished the job.
"He's such a talented rider", continued Martinelli, "He's pretty strong going up a climb as well, so yesterday he coped a lot better than the other sprinters and that meant he had more energy going into this stage."
"The guys did a fantastic job but I made a slight mistake in the final and wasn't expecting Quick-Step to come from behind like that," said a despondent Bennett, "I couldn't make the right call in that split second and it cost me first place."
Mirco Maestri of wildcard team Bardiani lasted for an incredible 222.5km in the breakaway: "I thought about my family waiting for me at the finish line and I wanted to stay out on the front of the race for as long as possible. I'm going to try a break again, ultimately I really enjoyed it today."
Greipel was only good enough for eighth while Ewan finished behind teammate, Adam Yates (Oricaa-Scott).
Omar Fraile (Dimension Data) - after his stunning win on stage 11 - takes the blue King of the Mountains jersey from Jan Polanc (UAE Team Emirates) after taking maximum points on the Colla di Casaglia.
Being such a long, mostly flat stage from Forli to Reggio Emilia, the peloton made no fuss as a three man break of Maestri, Marco Marcato (UAE Team Emirates) and Sergey Firsanov (Gazprom) went out early with a constant gap of around five to six minutes.
It was a very quiet day until 50km to go when the peloton turned the screw and began reeling in the break, and had dropped the gap to one minute 30 seconds only 22km later as the race entered Modena.
Despite Firsanov and Marcato getting caught with 13km remaining, Maestri wasn't willing to give up and attacked again, taking his total kilometres on the front to 222.5 - further than most entire stages on the 2017 Giro and the Grand Tour in general.
After a supremely valiant effort from Maestri, the Italian was finally pegged back with 6.5km to go on the main road into Reggio Emilia as the lead out trains took their positions.
Bora-Hansgrohe took control on the front of the peloton with 3km to go in the interest of their sprinter, Bennett, while flanked by the trains of Orica-Scott, Lotto-Soudal and Quick-Step Floors.
Albanian national champion Eugert Zhupa (Wilier Selle Italia) tried to pull off an optimistic Lukas Postlberger-esque move at 1.6km but was caught again 500 metres later.
As the road narrowed, Quick-Step Floors pushed with Richeze on the front, shielding Gaviria, and released the Colombian powerhouse perfectly to complete perhaps the easiest of his three stage wins at the 2017 Giro.
Stage 13 won't be a race to watch in its entirety. There are absolutely no notable features on the pan-flat 169km course from Reggio Emilia to Tortona and will only come to life in the final minutes when the sprinters look to come out on top in the final sprint opportunity of Giro 100.
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| Credit: velonews.com |
Jakub Mareczko (Wilier Selle Italia), Sam Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Phil Bauhaus (Team Sunweb) weren't a challenge to Gaviria in the end, with his own lead out man, Maximiliano Richeze (Quick-Step Floors), taking fifth.
Gaviria was modest in victory, respecting his rival, Greipel: "I'm not sure I'm the best, Andre Greipel is the best - he has more victories in his career - but I'm the one with the most victories at this Giro. I've got better form which is why I have three wins."
Gaviria's teammate, Davide Martinelli, said: "I think we did a really good job to hold Gaviria in the right position, we judged everything well and Richeze launched him absolutely perfectly and Fernando finished the job.
"He's such a talented rider", continued Martinelli, "He's pretty strong going up a climb as well, so yesterday he coped a lot better than the other sprinters and that meant he had more energy going into this stage."
"The guys did a fantastic job but I made a slight mistake in the final and wasn't expecting Quick-Step to come from behind like that," said a despondent Bennett, "I couldn't make the right call in that split second and it cost me first place."
Mirco Maestri of wildcard team Bardiani lasted for an incredible 222.5km in the breakaway: "I thought about my family waiting for me at the finish line and I wanted to stay out on the front of the race for as long as possible. I'm going to try a break again, ultimately I really enjoyed it today."
Greipel was only good enough for eighth while Ewan finished behind teammate, Adam Yates (Oricaa-Scott).
Omar Fraile (Dimension Data) - after his stunning win on stage 11 - takes the blue King of the Mountains jersey from Jan Polanc (UAE Team Emirates) after taking maximum points on the Colla di Casaglia.
Being such a long, mostly flat stage from Forli to Reggio Emilia, the peloton made no fuss as a three man break of Maestri, Marco Marcato (UAE Team Emirates) and Sergey Firsanov (Gazprom) went out early with a constant gap of around five to six minutes.
It was a very quiet day until 50km to go when the peloton turned the screw and began reeling in the break, and had dropped the gap to one minute 30 seconds only 22km later as the race entered Modena.
Despite Firsanov and Marcato getting caught with 13km remaining, Maestri wasn't willing to give up and attacked again, taking his total kilometres on the front to 222.5 - further than most entire stages on the 2017 Giro and the Grand Tour in general.
After a supremely valiant effort from Maestri, the Italian was finally pegged back with 6.5km to go on the main road into Reggio Emilia as the lead out trains took their positions.
Bora-Hansgrohe took control on the front of the peloton with 3km to go in the interest of their sprinter, Bennett, while flanked by the trains of Orica-Scott, Lotto-Soudal and Quick-Step Floors.
Albanian national champion Eugert Zhupa (Wilier Selle Italia) tried to pull off an optimistic Lukas Postlberger-esque move at 1.6km but was caught again 500 metres later.
As the road narrowed, Quick-Step Floors pushed with Richeze on the front, shielding Gaviria, and released the Colombian powerhouse perfectly to complete perhaps the easiest of his three stage wins at the 2017 Giro.
Stage 13 won't be a race to watch in its entirety. There are absolutely no notable features on the pan-flat 169km course from Reggio Emilia to Tortona and will only come to life in the final minutes when the sprinters look to come out on top in the final sprint opportunity of Giro 100.
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