Vincenzo Nibali again first, in the snow on top of the 20th stage of the Giro d\'Italia 2013

Vincenzo Nibali again first, in the snow on top of the 20th stage of the Giro d'Italia 2013

Saturday 25 May 2013 at 17h09

A modified stage which, thanks to its non modified final part with a mountain top finish gave a beautiful finish today in the Giro d'Italia 2013. In this very last climb the whole stage got turned around and Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) again showed why he's the one to go home in pink from Brescia after the final finish of this race tomorrow.

The summary of the 20th stage of the Giro d'Italia 2013: Silandro > Tre Cime di Lavaredo

With the abandon of Robert Gesink (Blanco Pro Cycling Team) during the improvised rest day yesterday (following the cancellation of the 19th stage) and the suspension of Danilo di Luca (Vini Fantini-Selle Italia) following a positive test for EPO a few days before the start of the Giro, 169 riders came to the start of this forelast stage of the Tour of Italy 2013 in Silandro.

The race route of this stage has been modified in order to allow the stage to take place in the very difficult weather conditions in Italy and these riders thus started a stage of 210 kilometers.

The breakaway of the day was formed only after 18 kilometers in the race and included Giairo Ermeti (Androni Giocattoli-Venezuela), Pavel Brutt (Katusha), Adam Hansen (Lotto-Belisol) and Yaroslav Popovych (Radioshack-Leopard). Going off full speed (the average speed in the first hour of the race was 52.2 km/h), these 4 riders already have a gap up to 8'30" only 34 kilometers further and this gap then oscillates between 6 and 7 minutes for quite some time.

These 4 riders are thus still leading when they get at the first intermediate sprint of the stage in Dobbiaco after 156 kilometers in the race. The Russian rider Pavel Brutt wins this sprint and from there the peloton starts to win back some time on the leading group.

When the gap goes under 3 minutes, Carlos Betancur (AG2R La Mondiale) gets distanced by the peloton due to a flat tyre.

Just after the second intermediate sprint in Cortina d'Ampezzo, won by Yaroslav Popovych ahead of Pavel Brutt, and thus at the foot of the climb of the Passo Tre Croci, Brutt decides to attack and apart from Adam Hansen the two other riders of the initial breakaway are taken back by the peloton.

Behind Pavel Brutt and Adam Hansen, Stefano Pirazzi (Bardiani Valvole-CSF Inox) is the first to start the chase but the Italian rider is taken back by the peloton. Pieter Weening (Orica-GreenEDGE) is the next rider to try to go find the Russian rider and the Dutch rider seems to have more success in this quest.

Stefano Pirazzi tries once more, this time following Darwin Atapuma (Colombia) but there again without success. Just before the top of this forelast climb of the stage, the peloton also gets back on Adam Hansen and Pavel Brutt and Pieter Weening are thus the only two remaining riders at the head of the race. On top of the Passo Tre Croci Brutt thus arrives first, followed at 26 seconds by Weening and at 32 seconds by Pirazzi, again a few meters ahead of the peloton which reaches the top at 47 seconds from Pavel Brutt.

Several riders close the gap with Weening and at 8.7 kilometers from the finish, Pieter Weening, Gianluca Brambila (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) and Eros Capecchi (Movistar Team) join Pavel Brutt at the head of the race while the snow starts to fall on the riders. These three riders rapidly get rid of Pavel Brutt and start the last 7 kilometers uphill of this Giro d'Italia 2013 while Stefano Pirazzi is joined by Darwin Atapuma chasing behind this leading trio.

After one kilometer in the climb, Eros Capecchi attacks and rapidly creates a small gap while in the second chasing group (behind Weening and Brambila donc) Pirazzi has to leave his place to Robert Kiserlovski (Radioshack-Leopard). When Capecchi is at 3 kilometers from the finish, the pink jersey Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) attacks, with his team mate Tanel Kangert and these two riders rapidly come back on Kiserlovski and Atapuma.

Nibali continues getting back the other leading riders, now accompanied by several other riders and gets over Weening and Capecchi as if they were standing still.

Behind him we find Rigoberto Uran (Team Sky) and Carlos Betancur (AG2R La Mondiale) who managed to follow the boss of the race in his initial attack but who weren't able to follow when he went on after having taken back Capecchi.

In the last kilometer these two riders are joined by Fabio Duarte (Colombia) but even being three is not enough to get back on Vincenzo Nibali for who even the pink jersey is difficult to recognise in the snow!

Nibali thus wins his second stage in row, after his victory in the time trial the day before yesterday!

Video summary of the 20th stage of the Giro d'Italia 2013

Here's the video summary of the 20th stage of the Tour of Italy 2013:

The classifications after the 20th stage of the Giro d'Italia 2013

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Classification of the 20th stage of the Tour of Italy 2013: Silandro > Tre Cime di Lavaredo

Here's the top 10 of this stage:

1/ Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) - 5h27'41"
2/ Rigoberto Uran (Team Sky) - +0'17"
3/ Fabio Duarte (Colombia)
4/ Carlos Betancur (AG2R La Mondiale)
5/ Fabio Aru (Astana) - +0'40"
6/ Franco Pellizotti (Androni Giocattoli-Venezuela)
7/ Domenico Pozzovivo (AG2R La Mondiale)
8/ Damiano Caruso (Cannondale Pro Cycling)
9/ Darwin Atapuma (Colombia)
10/ Rafal Majka (Team Saxo-Tinkoff)

General classification

Since Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) couldn't follow the movement after Vincenzo Nibali (Astana)'s attack, the Australian rider drops from the 2nd to the 3rd place in the general classification the day beforee the end. Furthermore, Przemyslaw Niemiec (Lampre-Merida) leaves his 5th place to Carlos Betancur (AG2R La Mondiale):

1/ Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) - 79h23'19"
2/ Rigoberto Uran (Team Sky) - +4'43"
3/ Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) - +5'52"
4/ Michele Scarponi (Lampre-Merida) - +6'48"
5/ Carlos Betancur (AG2R La Mondiale) - +6'09"

Points classification

In the points classification, Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) leaves his first place to Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) while Rigoberto Uran (Team Sky) takes the 5th place for now:

1/ Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) - 128 points
2/ Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) - 117 points
3/ Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) - 111 points
4/ Carlos Betancur (AG2R La Mondiale - 108 points
5/ Rigoberto Uran (Team Sky) - 102 points

King of the Mountains classification

In the top 5 of the King of the Mountains classification, Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) enters at the 2nd place:

1/ Stefano Pirazzi (Bardiane Valvole-CSF Inox) - 82 points
2/ Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) - 45 points
3/ Giovanni Visconti (Movistar Team) - 45 points
4/ Jackson Rodriguez (Androni Giocattoli-Venezuela) - 41 points
5/ Carlos Betancur (AG2R La Mondiale) - 37 points

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Best young rider classification

In the classification of the young riders, the musical chair game between Rafal Majka (Team Saxo-Tinkoff) and Carlos Betancur (AG2R La Mondiale) continues because the last mentioned again takes over the lead in this classification:

1/ Carlos Betancur (AG2R La Mondiale) - 79h30'47"
2/ Rafal Majka (Team Saxo-Tinkoff) - +0'41"
3/ Wilco Kelderman (Blanco Pro Cycling Team) - +12'06"
4/ Darwin Atapuma (Colombia) - +19'50"
5/ Diego Rosa (Androni Giocattoli-Venezuela) - +32'55"

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Giro d Italia | Giro d'Italia 2013