Team Saxo Bank's Richie Porte will wear the maglia rosa into the mountains of the Giro d'Italia as he protected the overall lead in Friday's Stage 13.
Manuel Belletti (Colnago) won the 138-mile race from Porto Recanti to Cesenatico in front of yet another breakaway at the Giro. His victory also marked the second day in a row that at Italian won the stage in his home country.
Filippo Pozzato (Katusha) broke the jinx in Stage 12 on Thursday to become the first Italian to win a Giro stage this year.
Mountains
The peloton begins a grueling and decisive segment of the Giro starting on Saturday.
Over the next eight days, we'll see four mountain stages and two time trials before the race ends a week from Sunday. There's also a moderately hilly stage and a flat stage for the sprinters.
On Friday, Porte kept his 1:42 lead over David Arroyo of Caisse d'Epagne. The highest ranked early favorite is Carlos Sastre (Cervelo) in 8th place at 7:09 behind. Further down are Bradley Wiggins (Sky) in 10th (8:14 behind), Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) in 12th (9:48 behind), and Cadel Evans (BMC) in 15th place (11:10 behind).
The first challenge they'll face is Saturday's 127-mile race from Ferrara to Asolo, which features a late climb over Monte Grappa.
Then Sunday the peloton climbs three mountains, including the final mountaintop finish at Zoncolan.
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