Giro d'Italia: Modolo wins bunch sprint in Jesolo

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Sacha Modolo (Lampre-Merida) won the bunch sprint of the 13th stage of the Giro d'Italia in Jesolo. He outsprinted Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek Factory) and Elia Viviani (Sky) on another wet day in Italy. A mass crash just outside the three kilometre zone greatly reduced the final field, and upset the general classification, giving Fabio Aru (Astana) the overall lead.

"Finally I've won a stage. My great companion, colleague and friend, Max Richeze, gave me the perfect lead-out, and I just finished off the work of my team," Modolo said. "At Fiuggi, I was disappointed with myself. At Forlì the breakaway made it so I didn't get the chance to sprint, so it was destiny that I would win my home stage. I have so many friends standing at the barriers from San Vendemiano, my home village, that this experience is unforgettable."

Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) was caught behind the crash, while rival Aru was near the front. That was enough for the leader’s jersey to change hands, as Aru came in on the same time as the leader, while Contador lost nearly 40 seconds putting him 19 seconds behind the Italian.

Richie Porte’s string of bad luck continued, as the crash cost him two minutes. He finished the race on a borrowed bike from teammate Vasil Kiryienka, which was 11 cm larger than his normal size.

Contador said that he hit the ground in the crash, checked himself to make sure he was uninjured and then looked to see where he could find a team bike to take himself to the finish.

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How it unfolded

The number 13 isn’t a bad luck number in Italy, but many in the peloton may have felt otherwise. The day started once again with the rain that has plagued the race the last few days. At least on this stage there was no worry about wet, dangerous descents – the course really couldn’t have been much flatter.

The break group got away fairly early, and consisted of Rick Zabel (BMC), Jerome Pineau (IAM Cycling) and Marco Frapporti (Androni Giacattoli). The field allowed them to get away, but not too far, holding the gap under two and a half minutes.

The three leaders were stopped by a closed railroad crossing, and a few minutes later, the peloton was also slowed and stopped momentarily. The three leaders seemed to have lost their momentum though, as the gap went from two minutes to one. Frapporti took the first intermediate sprint, with Zabel living up to his family sprinting tradition and winning the second. The peloton came across only 1:05 down, with just over 70 km to go.

It was an easy day for Tinkoff-Saxo, as the Russian team didn’t have to worry about leading the chase. This Giro offers few opportunities to the sprinters, and having lost one opportunity to an escape group, the sprinters’ teams were determined to have their chance today day. They shared the lead work, with Tinkoff-Saxo keeping a close eye on them, and Astana keeping a close eye on Tinkoff-Saxo.

The trio held on to its one-minute gap, but with 25km left, the trend was downward, and closer to 30 seconds. At the 20km marker it was down to 14 seconds, and they were then caught with only 17.5km left, with Tinkoff-Saxo now at the head of the field.

The sprinters teams let the Russian team hold control of the field, giving themselves a break after their chase work and before facing the actual sprint. With 6km, Trek moved to the front, hoping to set up things for Nizzolo.

Just before the 3km marker, the field split with crash in the middle of the field. A greatly reduced peloton of some 30-40 continued on, with much looking around a re-grouping. Richie Porte was either involved in or caught by the crash, and was soon seen trying to hurry his way up through the team cars.

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