photo credits @ Twitter
Following a week of controversy and calamity, Fabio Aru (Astana) embraced victory today, after claiming stage 19 of this year’s Giro d’Italia with a stunning solo win in Cervinia.
The Finale
As riders reached the base of today’s penultimate category 1 climb, Giovanni Visconti (Movistar) was leading the race with a slight 22 second advantage over Pavel Kochetkov (Katusha) and Vasil Kiryienka (Sky).
From there, Visconti continued to extend his lead over his two rivals by a minute during the final 32 kilometers, while the rest of the peloton trailed at approximately 2 minutes back.
Following the descent of the Col de Saint-Pantaléon, Visconti was 1:35 ahead of Kochetkov, who had since dispatched Kiryienka, while the peloton still lied almost 2 minutes back.
As the race approached the final climb to Cervinia, Kochetkov was caught, while Visconti’s lead had diminished by almost half a minute. And, as riders reached the final 10 kilometer mark, the Movistar rider was caught.
From there, Team Sky’s Kanstantsin Siutsiou triggered the first attack, which set off the small group GC contenders containing Aru, Contador, Ryder Hesjedal (Cannondale-Garmin) and Landa, to make their way clear.
Inside the final 9 kilometers, Hesjedal decided to surge, while Contador and Aru closely marked the Canadian rider’s efforts.
With the peloton well behind them, Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo), Landa, Aru and Contador were the only survivors left to chase down Hesjedal.
And, with 6 kilometers remaining, Aru succeeded in doing just that, while Kruijswijk and Contador lingered at 16 seconds back.
At that point, there would be no alliance between the two leaders, as Aru quickly attacked Hesjedal, subsequently heading off alone to claim a solo victory – 45 seconds ahead of the chase.
Meanwhile, Contador safely rode in with the rest of the chase, to maintain his grip on the overall race lead with a substantial 4:37 lead over his chief rival Aru.
Stage 19 Results ITA 1 ARU, Fabio (ASTANA) 6:24:13 CAN 2 HESJEDAL, Ryder (CANNONDALE – GARMIN) + 28 COL 3 URAN URAN, Rigoberto (ETIXX – QUICK STEP) + 1:10 EST 4 KANGERT, Tanel (ASTANA) + 1:18 NED 5 KRUIJSWIJK, Steven (LOTTO NL – JUMBO) ESP 6 CONTADOR VELASCO, Alberto (TINKOFF – SAXO) ESP 7 LANDA MEANA, Mikel (ASTANA) CZE 8 KONIG, Leopold (SKY) + 1:21 ESP 9 NIEVE ITURALDE, Mikel (SKY) + 1:24 FRA 10 GENIEZ, Alexandre (FDJ) + 2:24 ITA 11 CARUSO, Damiano (BMC RACING) + 2:27 CRC 12 AMADOR BAKKAZAKOVA, Andrey (MOVISTAR) BEL 13 MONFORT, Maxime (LOTTO SOUDAL) + 2:49 VEN 14 MONSALVE, Jonathan (SOUTHEAST) RUS 15 TROFIMOV, Yury (KATUSHA) BEL 16 VAN DEN BROECK, Jurgen (LOTTO SOUDAL) COL 17 ATAPUMA HURTADO, Darwin (BMC RACING) + 4:43 ITA 18 FELLINE, Fabio (TREK FACTORY RACING) + 5:14 FRA 19 MOINARD, Amaël (BMC RACING) ITA 20 PELLIZOTTI, Franco (ANDRONI GIOCATTOLI) POR 21 CARDOSO, Andre Fernando S. Martins (CANNONDALE – GARMIN) BLR 22 SIUTSOU, Kanstantsin (SKY) FRA 23 ELISSONDE, Kenny (FDJ) + 6:52 ESP 24 INTXAUSTI ELORRIAGA, Benat (MOVISTAR) ITA 25 PIRAZZI, Stefano (BARDIANI CSF) + 9:03 ITA 26 TIRALONGO, Paolo (ASTANA) + 11:56 ITA 27 BASSO, Ivan (TINKOFF – SAXO) ITA 28 STORTONI, Simone (ANDRONI GIOCATTOLI) AUS 29 ROGERS, Michael (TINKOFF – SAXO) ITA 30 BISOLTI, Alessandro (NIPPO – VINI FANTINI) + 13:27 ESP 31 SANCHEZ GIL, Luis Leon (ASTANA) + 14:06 ITA 32 VISCONTI, Giovanni (MOVISTAR) + 14:46 RUS 33 ZAKARIN, Ilnur (KATUSHA) + 14:58 RUS 34 KOCHETKOV, Pavel (KATUSHA) ITA 35 ROSA, Diego (ASTANA) ESP 36 IZAGUIRRE INSAUSTI, Jon (MOVISTAR) ITA 37 PUCCIO, Salvatore (SKY) COL 38 HENAO GOMEZ, Sebastian (SKY) FRA 39 MOUREY, Francis (FDJ) + 16:01
General Classification after Stage 19 ESP 1 CONTADOR VELASCO, Alberto (TINKOFF – SAXO) 78:48:40 ITA 2 ARU, Fabio (ASTANA) + 4:37 ESP 3 LANDA MEANA, Mikel (ASTANA) + 5:15 CRC 4 AMADOR BAKKAZAKOVA, Andrey (MOVISTAR) + 8:10 CZE 5 KONIG, Leopold (SKY) + 10:47 RUS 6 TROFIMOV, Yury (KATUSHA) + 11:11 CAN 7 HESJEDAL, Ryder (CANNONDALE – GARMIN) + 12:05 ITA 8 CARUSO, Damiano (BMC RACING) + 12:14 NED 9 KRUIJSWIJK, Steven (LOTTO NL – JUMBO) + 12:53 FRA 10 GENIEZ, Alexandre (FDJ) + 15:07
You must be logged in to post a comment.
