Tom Dumoulin extends lead in maglia rosa on stage 14 of Giro 100
Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) cracked Nairo Quintana (Movistar) on the climb to the Sanctuary of Oropa to extend his lead in the maglia rosa by 24 seconds as he won stage 14 of the 100th Giro.
The Movistar rider had initially attacked on the 11km climb up to the Sanctuary but Dumoulin kept his composure to slowly but surely reel the Colombian back in and out sprint Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin) and Mikel Landa (Team Sky) for the stage victory.
A beaming Dumoulin said at the finish: "I knew they [Movistar] would attack and they did. It was very hard but I always had my focus and I was quite relaxed. I couldn't follow the first attack from Quintana so I had to take my own pace and I came closer and closer, and at the end I still had something left for the finish."
He was, however, reserved in his confidence of winning the Giro: "There's a lot of climbing to do in the last week and we are far from Milan still."
A disheartened Quintana commented: "The climb was very quick and I thought it would favour me more. We climbed quickly but it was clear that the leader was in great form and he was able to win again."
The Colombian continued: "We'll be working as hard as we can while we still have the energy right until the end of the Giro to take back time."
Zakarin came second, three seconds down on Dumoulin, Mikel Landa third, nine seconds in arrears, Quintana lost 14 seconds and Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) 35 seconds.
Adam Yates (Orica-Scott), Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida), Franco Pellizotti (Bahrain-Merida), Steven Kruijswijk (Lotto-NLJumbo) and Tanel Kangert (Astana) all came in over 40 seconds down on the pink jersey.
Dumoulin - thanks to an extra ten bonus seconds for winning the stage - now leads Quintana by 2'47", while Pinot moves up to third (3'25") with Nibali (3'40") and Zakarin (4'24") in fourth and fifth respectively.
Trek Segafredo's Bauke Mollema (4'32"), Kangert (4'55"), AG2R's Domenico Pozzovivo (4'59"), Quick-Step Floors' Bob Jungels (5'28") and Movistar's Andrey Amador (5'36") fill out the top ten.
Dumoulin also takes over in the King of the Mountains classification, overtaking Omar Fraile (Dimension Data) by two points.
A short stage at just 131km from Castellania to Oropa, a breakaway took a while to solidify a gap but after 25km of battling three riders eventually escaped - Natnael Berhane (Dimension Data), Sergey Lagutin (Gazprom) and Daniel Martinez Poveda (Wilier Selle Italia) - but the group never took much of an advantage beyond two minutes.
The peloton finally decided to swallow up the break with 17km to go, with the climb up to the Sanctuary of Oropa approaching.
As the climb began, Movistar hit the front pushing the pace and at 1.5km into the climb their rider Jose Joaquim Rojas attacked and was joined by Diego Rosa (Team Sky) who counter-attacked and opened a 15 second gap.
Movistar and FDJ were leading the peloton trying to bring back the Italian, whose foray only lasted 3km.
The GC battled exploded into life with 5km to go on the steep cobbled slopes as Zakarin attacked. Pozzovivo then launched and was followed by Quintana and Zakarin who pulled away.
There was a feeling this could be the day Quintana took time back on Dumoulin, and as the Colombian forged a gap the stop-watches started.
Dumoulin - still only 26-years-old - showed incredible composure to patiently keep to his own pace and time trial himself back to Quintana's wheel and counter-attack.
Quintana had no answer and Dumoulin was able to round Zakarin in the final 50 metres to take his second stage win of Giro 100 and extend his overall lead.
Stage 15 is going to be tough as the race enters the Alps and could be a chance for a breakaway win. 199km from Valdengo to Bergamo, the parcour features two categorised mountains in the final third and even a sharp lump and downhill just before the final. It'll be interesting who can take the most from the stage heading into the final rest day on Monday.
 |
| Credit: cyclingnews.com |
A beaming Dumoulin said at the finish: "I knew they [Movistar] would attack and they did. It was very hard but I always had my focus and I was quite relaxed. I couldn't follow the first attack from Quintana so I had to take my own pace and I came closer and closer, and at the end I still had something left for the finish."
He was, however, reserved in his confidence of winning the Giro: "There's a lot of climbing to do in the last week and we are far from Milan still."
A disheartened Quintana commented: "The climb was very quick and I thought it would favour me more. We climbed quickly but it was clear that the leader was in great form and he was able to win again."
The Colombian continued: "We'll be working as hard as we can while we still have the energy right until the end of the Giro to take back time."
Zakarin came second, three seconds down on Dumoulin, Mikel Landa third, nine seconds in arrears, Quintana lost 14 seconds and Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) 35 seconds.
Adam Yates (Orica-Scott), Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida), Franco Pellizotti (Bahrain-Merida), Steven Kruijswijk (Lotto-NLJumbo) and Tanel Kangert (Astana) all came in over 40 seconds down on the pink jersey.
Dumoulin - thanks to an extra ten bonus seconds for winning the stage - now leads Quintana by 2'47", while Pinot moves up to third (3'25") with Nibali (3'40") and Zakarin (4'24") in fourth and fifth respectively.
Trek Segafredo's Bauke Mollema (4'32"), Kangert (4'55"), AG2R's Domenico Pozzovivo (4'59"), Quick-Step Floors' Bob Jungels (5'28") and Movistar's Andrey Amador (5'36") fill out the top ten.
Dumoulin also takes over in the King of the Mountains classification, overtaking Omar Fraile (Dimension Data) by two points.
A short stage at just 131km from Castellania to Oropa, a breakaway took a while to solidify a gap but after 25km of battling three riders eventually escaped - Natnael Berhane (Dimension Data), Sergey Lagutin (Gazprom) and Daniel Martinez Poveda (Wilier Selle Italia) - but the group never took much of an advantage beyond two minutes.
The peloton finally decided to swallow up the break with 17km to go, with the climb up to the Sanctuary of Oropa approaching.
As the climb began, Movistar hit the front pushing the pace and at 1.5km into the climb their rider Jose Joaquim Rojas attacked and was joined by Diego Rosa (Team Sky) who counter-attacked and opened a 15 second gap.
Movistar and FDJ were leading the peloton trying to bring back the Italian, whose foray only lasted 3km.
The GC battled exploded into life with 5km to go on the steep cobbled slopes as Zakarin attacked. Pozzovivo then launched and was followed by Quintana and Zakarin who pulled away.
There was a feeling this could be the day Quintana took time back on Dumoulin, and as the Colombian forged a gap the stop-watches started.
Dumoulin - still only 26-years-old - showed incredible composure to patiently keep to his own pace and time trial himself back to Quintana's wheel and counter-attack.
Quintana had no answer and Dumoulin was able to round Zakarin in the final 50 metres to take his second stage win of Giro 100 and extend his overall lead.
Stage 15 is going to be tough as the race enters the Alps and could be a chance for a breakaway win. 199km from Valdengo to Bergamo, the parcour features two categorised mountains in the final third and even a sharp lump and downhill just before the final. It'll be interesting who can take the most from the stage heading into the final rest day on Monday.
Comments
Post a Comment