Despite a bit of action sixty kilometres from Cento, stage 13 of the Giro d’Italia ended as expected with a bunch sprint on Friday. After 179 kilometres of racing, Laurence Pithie was able to join in the sprint again and this time took eighth place. Jonathan Milan scored his third win, on the eve of the event’s second individual time trial.
It was not the longest day, but certainly the flattest day. This Friday, on the Giro, the riders tackled a thirteenth stage without any uphill roads. Barely 200 meters of elevation gain were recorded over the 179 kilometres of the course, which obviously announced another battle between the sprinters. Andrea Pietrobon (Polti-Kometa), Alessandro Tonelli and Manuele Tarozzi (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizenè) nevertheless took the lead, then the peloton set an easy tempo for a large part of the stage. It was only after a hundred kilometres or so that the riders got a bit of action. “The only difficulty today was the wind,” explained Frédéric Guesdon. “It wasn’t everywhere, but in some spots, it was quite strong and had the right direction. So Ineos Grenadiers accelerated in the crosswinds, and the peloton split in two. Jonathan Milan had stopped a bit before, so he had a bad position, he found himself in the second peloton, and that livened up the final. If he had been in front, I’m not sure they would have kept pushing in front.” At this point, Groupama-FDJ had three men in the first peloton, but Laurence Pithie was in the second group. After a strong chase of around fifteen kilometres, everything eventually came back together.
“We have mixed feelings about today”, Frédéric Guesdon
The peloton then temporarily slowed down before the proper fight resumed in the last ten kilometres. “Positioning was important five kilometres from the finish,” explained Frédéric. “There were a series of roundabouts and chicanes in the city, so the goal was to keep Laurence up front. It proved difficult because everyone wanted to move up, and we were caught a bit behind when it accelerated.” The New Zealander was still able to go through the technical sections in the upper part of the bunch, then some of his teammates got back alongside him in the last two kilometres. After the last curve 500 metres from the line, Laurence Pithie was around tenth position, and on the line, he eventually took 8th. “He may have lacked a bit of support from the team at times,” Frédéric said. “It’s a bit disappointing because I think we could have done better today, at least a top-5. We have mixed feelings about today.” The Groupama-FDJ team anyway scored its third top-10 in this Giro, while a 31-kilometre time trial awaits the riders on Saturday. “Everyone will ride it according to his feelings, but Clément and Enzo will surely try to give their best,” concluded Frédéric.
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