Giro d'Italia: Landa wins on Madonna di Campiglio

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Mikel Landa gave Astana their second stage win of the Giro d’Italia, with victory atop Madonna di Campiglio, as Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) extended his lead in the overall classification. Landa caught and passed Yuri Trofimov (Katusha) in the final 450 metres to take the stage honours. Trofimov held on to take second while Contador beat Fabio Aru (Astana) to take the bonus seconds for third place, and increase his overall lead to 2:35 minutes.

"We have a very good team in the climbs and today it was the best part of the Giro," said Landa at the finish. "Obviously we wanted to finish with Aru in the best place that we can but it was difficult. We have the second place with him and we will still try to win the Giro, playing with the superiority of the team."

The fight for the stage win came down to four men as the pace set by Astana on the Madonna di Campiglio whittled down the group to just a select few. The Kazakh team had serious numbers in the finale with four riders ahead of Aru, while Contador had no teammates around him. However, Contador ensured he was best placed by situating himself ahead of Aru in the Astana train.

When Aru’s teammate Kangert moved off the front, his remaining man Landa put in a huge dig off the front. The move split the group but also distanced his leader Aru, with only Contador able to follow the Spaniard. Aru and Trofimov were able to bring the gap back and, like a game of pass the parcel, each of the remaining four riders had a go off the front.

Trofimov was the next to go with one kilometre remaining, looking to capitalise on the GC rivalry between Aru and Contador. It looked like he might make it as the others were waited for each other to initiate the chase. Realising that the stage might be about to go, Landa attacked and caught Trofimov with 450 metres to go, leaving the heartbroken Russian behind, to claim the stage win.

How it happened

When the riders woke up on Sunday morning, the first thing they would have seen was the blue skies. After three days of rain, the dry conditions would be some consolation as they took on the second high mountains stage of the Giro d’Italia. Their relief wouldn’t have lasted long as the peloton came flying out of the gate, averaging nearly 48kph in the first hour. An endless stream of riders attempted to go off the front but it wasn’t until midway up the first climb of Fricca that a move began to form.

The break first beak as a move of around 10 riders until Giovanni Visconti (Movistar) struck out and split it up. He was followed by stage winner Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha) and, after a shake up behind, they were joined by Visconti’s teammate and mountains classification leader Beñat Intxausti. The trio held a small gap of 46 seconds over the peloton as they hit the top of the climb. There was no competition for the points, with Intxausti sailing over to add nine points to his advantage.

The escape group became four when Sergio Paulinho (Tinkoff-Saxo) stormed down the descent to join forces with them in the valley. That group increased when Kantsantsin Siutsou (Teak Sky), Herbert Dupont and Matteo Montaguti (AG2R-La Mondiale) and Diego Rosa (Astana) caught up with them. Brent Bookwalter (BMC) made it a nice round 10 in the break.

Siutsou and Visconti decided that they could do it better on their own, and attacked the break group. Dupont and Bookwalter followed but with 54km to go they only had 2:15 on the maglia rosa group. The riders behind looked at each other, and eventually decided to sit up and wait to be brought back by the peloton.

As the four leaders hit the second, tougher climb of Ponte Arche, Bookwalter was immediately distanced and he would soon be swallowed back up by the peloton. Richie Porte’s (Team Sky) week got worse as he was dropped on the Ponte Arche, soon followed by Rigoberto Urán (Etixx-QuickStep). Visconti took the mountains points at the top, with Intxausti attacking the peloton to mop up the left overs.

Astana took over the pace setting in the closing kilometres and Aru found himself with five riders for support. Contador found himself with no teammates remaining after Roman Kreuziger was caught out on the descent. Thankfully for Sky their new GC leader Leopold König, who stuck himself to the back of the Astana train, had made it into the group of favourites. With 18km to go, Siutsou dropped back to help his teammate, as did Visconti, leaving Dupont the only remaining escapee with a small 14-second gap.

Knowing that every second counted, Contador launched a surprise attack to take second in the final intermediate sprint – with Dupont taking the top spot – earning himself two bonus seconds. Astana did react with Tanel Kangert but it wasn’t quick enough to stop the Spaniard from extending his lead over Aru.

Astana led the group of favourites onto the final climb, still five-men strong including their team leader Aru. He might have been outnumbered, but Contador was determined to assert his authority in the maglia rosa and stuck himself in the middle of the Astana train, just ahead of Aru. Meanwhile, Porte continued to slip back and had lost eight minutes on the Contador group by the time they reached the eight kilometre to go mark.

The Astana pace setting continued to whittle down the bunch and only eight riders remained in the front group with five to go. The action finally took hold with Kangert peeled off with just over two to go and Landa upped the pace.

Landa showed his strength throughout and made his race winning move with 500 metres to go.

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