2013 Giro d'Italia Stage 13 Results & Recap
Stage 13 of the 2013 Giro d'Italia is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
Nibali remains in maglia rosa
Having claimed the 100th win of his career on Thursday, Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) started on the path towards his next century of victories when he led the bunch home in Cherasco, narrowly holding off Giacomo Nizzolo (RadioShack-Leopard) and Luka Mezgec (Argos-Shimano) in a frantic finish at the end of the Giroâ??s longest stage.
After the race bumped over a small hill with 6km remaining, Cavendish was close to the front of the bunch but found he had no teammates to support him as they had spent most of the second half of the stage reeling in a seven-rider break that had led by more than 13 minutes. Sensing Cavendish was isolated, Cannondale went to the front to chase down lone breakaway Giampaolo Caruso (Katusha) and set up Elia Viviani for the sprint.
With Orica-GreenEdge also prominent as they worked for Brett Lancaster, Cavendish was seven riders back when Cannondale began to wind the sprint up for Viviani from 500m out. For a moment, it looked like the Briton was going to be boxed in, but seeing a gap to his right he shot through it with 350 metres still to the line. In typical fashion, he opened up a gap of half a dozen metres on the riders behind him, but had to battle hard to hold on as Nizzolo came through quickly on his left, but just fractionally too late to claim his first Grand Tour stage win.
Cavendish, who now has 40 Grand Tour stage wins to his credit, admitted he hadnâ??t wanted to ride for the win today, given the length of the stage and his teamâ??s efforts yesterday. â??Iâ??m so, so tired. I donâ??t know how Iâ??m going to recover before the mountains tomorrow,â?? he said. â??A sprint like that takes so much effort out of you. I was right on the limit, I had to go from 350 metres out and Iâ??m on my knees now. The guys saved me on the climbs today and I feel like this is now building into the teams I had of old. The guys just ride and ride and ride. Theyâ??re incredible.â??
There was no change in the overall standings. Race leader Vincenzo Nibali said he had enjoyed the fact that the weather was much better and looked ominously strong on that final little rise as he chased down a cheeky attack by eighth-placed Beñat Intxausti (Movistar).
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