Russell Downing (Team Sky) is riding his first grand tour and suffered on the first big mountain stage to Grossglockner on Friday after coming down with a cold. However he made it up the Zoncolan on Saturday and finished in the gruppetto on Sunday after climbing the five major climbs during the 22km stage.
"I was yo-yoing off the back of the gruppetto on Friday and only just made it back on a couple of times but fortunately that was the worst moment," he told Cyclingnews.
"I spun a low gear up the Zoncolan and fortunately today we had a big [time] limit to play with. I've made it and now I'm even looking forward to the last week of the race."
Cyclingnews caught the moment Downing made it back to the Team Sky bus after the stage to Gardeccia. He was tired and a little unsteady on his legs after eight and half hours on the bike but was happy to have made it.
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