Nairo gets past hardest day
22 May 2014

Giro de Italia (st. 12)

Colombian now 6th overall, overcomes cold and less fetching terrain for him in Giro ITT to contain loss to all main favourites but excellent Urán (OPQ), new maglia rosa

Nairo Quintana (Movistar Team) will tackle the last nine days of the Giro d’Italia with two obstacles to be overtaken: a cold, which has affected him in the last few days, and the 3’29” he will need to make up in the big mountains of the Corsa Rosa, starting this weekend. The Colombian finished in 14th spot in the first individual time trial of the race, a 42km route from Barbaresco to Barolo with three short climbs in mainly wet roads, where he performed at the height and constance of his expectations.

Third provisional through the first intermediate time, the leader of the telephone squad -who faced this TT in a relaxed mood, looking forward to save energy and help Nairo in the remainder of the race, except for a notable José Herrada (12th), who acted as reference for the Colombian- reached the second split with less than thirty seconds lost to all his main rivals. The only exception was Rigoberto Urán (OPQ), who dominated his competition to claim the stage win and the maglia rosa as GC leader. Nairo got through the demanding finale and lost just over 1′ to Evans (BMC) and Majka (TCS), 38″ to Kelderman (BEL), 32″ to Pozzovivo (ALM) and even beat Aru (AST) and Morabito (BMC) to jump into 6th overall.

Friday will bring stage thirteen, a theoretically calm, 157km route between Fossano and Rivarolo Canavese, which will lead the race into the alps for the mountain-top finishes in Oropa (Saturday) and Plan di Montecampione (Sunday).