Ride for P23 safety SPORTS 2424 Saturday, May 27, 2017

Piancavallo Pordenone to Asiago, Quintana now ormer winner took has his work cut out. the Giro d’Italia pink jersey from Especially as Sunday’s final stage is a FDutch rival Tom Dumoulin on Friday mainly flat time trial over 29.3km from but the Colombian climber warned Monza to Milan, and Dumoulin was the race is “far from over” with two nearly three minutes faster than him on stages left. the 10th stage time trial last week. “It’s still quite difficult,” Quintana “We have to try and take more said when asked if he could win in time from Dumoulin tomorrow,” said Milan on Sunday. Quintana. “He is much stronger in the “Tomorrow will be the decisive time trial.” Quintana stage.” Nibali, who lost 2min 07sec to Quintana, the 2014 champion who Dumoulin on the stage 10 race against rides for Movistar, finished nearly eight the clock, agreed: “We have to give it and a half minutes behind Spanish everything tomorrow, we have to take Team Sky rider who as many seconds as possible before the soloed over the finish line following a time trial. 191km ride from San Candido to the Sunweb team leader Dumoulin summit finish at Piancavallo. produced some valiant efforts trying But it was enough to give the to save his pink jersey this week, Colombian, who saw Dumoulin including a brave solo climb over the make a “rookie mistake” and struggle formidable Stelvio climb following an throughout the fourth of five days in embarrassing, unscheduled toilet stop. the mountains, the race lead two days back before the 100th edition finishes. ‘Bad legs’ Dumoulin -- bidding to become But a day after sparking a spat with the Giro’s first Dutch champion Quintana and Nibali, the Dutchman -- dropped to second overall at was given payback. 38secs with Italy’s two-time Although he shook hands with champion Nibali before the start, Italy’s two-time (Bahrain) now third at winner was quickly involved when 43, 10 secs ahead of Movistar put the pedal to the metal on resurgent Frenchman the descent of the first climb. (FDJ). It caught Dumoulin cold, and he With a final day admitted: “I had bad legs from the in the mountains start and I made a rookie mistake at in on Saturday’s the beginning, sitting at the back of the 20th and bunch on the downhill. penultimate “Then Bahrain and Movistar split stage from the bunch and I was in the second group and needed, with my bad legs, to go to the maximum to come back, in the middle of the stage. So that was really unnecessary.” Throughout the stage, Dumoulin was in danger of losing the lead after being isolated prior to the final, 15.4 pinkResults from the 19th stage held over 191 km climb to Piancavallo. km between San Candido and Piancavallo: Landa, who had been part of an Stage earlier breakaway that built a lead 1. Mikel Landa (ESP/SKY) 4hr 53min 00sec, Colombia’s Nairo Quintana of nearly 10 minutes, made amends 2. (POR/UAE) at 1min 49sec, of team Movistar for his runner-up finish to Tejay 3. (FRA/CAN) 1:54, Van Garderen on Thursday when he 4. Pello Bilbao (ESP/AST) 2:12, 5. Sebastian Henao (COL/SKY) 3:06, attacked Rui Costa 10 km from the 6. Evgeny Shalunov (RUS/GAZ) 3:51, summit to solo over the finish line well 7. Luis Leon Sanchez (ESP/AST) s.t., ahead of his Portuguese rival. 8. Matteo Busato (ITA/WIL) 5:05, “I was very emotional at the finish 9. Lorenzo Rota (ITA/BAR) s.t., because I’ve had a tough few months, 10. Ilia Koshevoy (BLR/WIL) 6:44 and earier in the Giro when we Selected: crashed,” said Landa, one of several 11. Thibaut Pinot (FRA/FDJ) 8:09, riders brought down, alongside 15. (GBR/ORI) 8:21, teammate , by a 16. Nairo Quintana (COL/MOV) s.t., 18. Vincenzo Nibali (ITA/BAH) 8:23, police motorcycle on stage nine. 22. Tom Dumoulin (NED/SUN) 9:30 Meanwhile, as Dumoulin’s pink General classification jersey grip continued to slip, Pinot 1. Nairo Quintana (COL/MOV) 85hr 02min 40sec, boosted his chances of a podium 2. Tom Dumoulin (NED/SUN) at 38secs, finish for the second successive day

Result 3. Vincenzo Nibali (ITA/BAH) 43, by attacking Nibali and Quintana’s 4. Thibaut Pinot (FRA/FDJ) 53, group 6km from the finish to close 5. Ilnur Zakarin (RUS/KAT) 1min 21sec, to within 10secs of the Italian. 6. (ITA/ALM) 1:30, Four riders are now within one 7. (NED/TRE) 2:48, 8. Adam Yates (GBR/ORI) 6:35, minute of Quintana, setting the scene 9. (LUX/QST) 7:03, for a spectacular final day in the 10. Steven Kruijswijk (NED/TLJ) 7:37 mountains. (AFP)

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