Italy's Emanuele Sella won the mountainous Stage 14 of the Giro d'Italia by more than 4 minutes with a solo breakaway some 30 miles from the mountaintop finish in Alpe di Pampeago.
The high mountain passes on Saturday also served to shake up the overall lead, with Gabriele Bosisio taking the pink jersey, leading Astana's Alberto Contador by just 5 seconds.
On Sunday the real fun begins, though, as Stage 15 features six climbs over 94 miles, including the mountaintop finish at Passo Fedaia. Expect more changes in the overall standings.
Breakaway
The first major breakaway of the day included the US's Christian Vande Velde, who took the pink jersey way back in Stage 1 after Slipstream won the individual time trial.
Also in that group was Sella, riding for Team CSF Group Navigare. Sella attacked on the major climb of the day, Passo Manghen, which rockets up a 13% slope in places.
While Sella was thrashing the riders in the breakaway and the peloton, Giovannia Visconti was dropping off the back, his eight days in the pink jersey about to come to an end.
Finish
Sella had lost out in Stage 7 with a puncture near the close of the race. He wasn't going to allow a repeat of that, as he drove hard all the way to the finish, continuing to put time on the chasers up the final couple of miles.
For instance, CyclingNews reported that Sella had 2 minutes, 24 seconds on the chasers with five kilometers to go. Yet he tacked on another 2 1/2 minutes by finishing 5 minutes ahead of second place Vasili Kiryienka of Tinkoff and 10 minutes ahead of the rest of the peloton.
More details and results at CyclingNews and VeloNews.
Recent Comments