As it happened: Win goes to the breakaway on stage 13 of the Giro d’Italia
Late hills could disrupt the sprinters as the race heads to Verbania
Hello and welcome to stage 13 of the Giro d'Italia!
Were it not for the final 25km, this would have been unambiguously a stage for the Giro. But rarely wishing for anything straightforward, the organisers have included two late climbs blow this race open for all other kinds of riders, from breakaway specialists who will try and get into a move at the start of the day, puncheurs who might try an attack on them, or even GC riders who might spy an opportunity to gain some time.
That means that, despite the long stretch of flat kilometres, this is set to be another exciting day, with many riders desperate to get into the breakaway.
And perhaps even a GC day? The final climb is both steep enough and near enough to the finish to potentially provide a launchpad for someone seeking to gain some valuable seconds; especially if the breakaway is caught by then, in which case the bonus seconds available on offer at the foot of the climb at the Red Bull KM would also come into play
For anyone wishing to put time into Jonas Vingegaard, they might have missed their best opportunity. Yesterday, the Dane revealed that he had been suffering from illness - but also that he now feels recovered.
Alessandria is the location for the stage start, and the riders have set off from the unofficial start.
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Just 2km now until the riders see the flag for the official start.
It's a narrow road as they reach KM 0, so not much room to make an attack.
Lots of attacks right from the flag but nobody has managed to get a gap yet.
Bjerg is looking especially keen, and is doing some big pulls to try and go clear.
Milan is the latest tot try a move, and for once doesn't have Magnier glued to his wheel.
Seven new riders form a group, including Leknessund, and have a few seconds of a lead.
Their lead's up to 10 seconds now.
As well as Leknessund, Warbasse, Valgren and Rojas are there, plus three others.
Now a chase group has formed, an Ganna is present in it.
Jacobs, Donovan and Sevilla are the other three riders in the lead group of seven.
The Ganna group has been caught.
170KM TO GO
The seven leaders have some work to do to establish themselves as the break of the day, with their lead still only a slender 10 seconds.
Flat tyre for Afonso Eulálio. The pink jersey has needed to change bikes.
Ganna attacks out of the peloton again. The Italian is really up for it today, on a stage that visits his home town.
Not one but two different chase groups have formed behind the leading seven.
Those groups have come together, so there are now about 20 riders together trying to chase the 7 leaders.
Bjerg, Stuyven and Bettiol are among those in this group.
Eulálio is backin the peloton.
Correction - Bjerg, Stuyven and Bettiol are with Maestri and Busatto in a group behind the leading seven. The big group of 20 behind have been caught by the peloton.
The Bjerg group is 20 seconds behind the leading seven, and 15 seconds ahead of the peloton.
Mick van Dijke tried an attack out the peloton but wasn't allowed to go clear, now Corbin Strong is.
Now Sean Flynn tries an attack. There seems to be a desire in the peloton though for the riders already up the road to form the break, and for no other riders to go clear and join them.
160KM TO GO
The 7-man lead group is now a 6-man lead group, as Rojas has been dropped out of it. They lead the chase group of 5 by 25 seconds, and neaarly have a minute on the peloton.
Despite the increasing gap, Ganna isn't giving up! He's just attacked out of the peloton with Turner.
Ganna and Turner have been caught, but the peloton had to go deep to do so, and is now all stretched out.
This might be it now though, the pace is down in the peloton, which is now bunching together.
There are still some riders unhappy, and Gijs Leemreize jumps out of the peloton to chase.
This does appear to be it though. The gaps are growing, with the leaders 1:40 ahead, and the chase group 1:10 ahead.
Another group formed unseen behind the two lead groups and ahead of Gijs Leemreize, containing Aaerts, Kench, Huens and Hoelgaard.
150KM TO GO
These chase groups are having a hard time bridging up to the lead group. The first chase group is still 30 seconds behind and the second chase group 50 seconds behind, while the peloton is at over three minutes now.
So the peloton has sat up now, but how long will it take for these two chase groups to join the leaders?
The 6 riders leading the race.
The chasing five have caught the leading six.
Now we wait to see if the chasing four can join them.
The chase group has 30 seconds to make up on the leaders, but are a whole three minutes up on the peloton.
The peloton hasn't sat up, though. Team NSN are setting a pace with Mullen, having missed the move.
Leemreize was on a hiding to nothing, and has been caught.
Mullen might be trying to ride hard, but he's not bringing the leaders any closer. They have 3:30 on the peloton.
Meanwhile the chasing quartet can now see the leaders and are only 15 seconds behind. They'll make the catch soon.
The groups have at last come together, so we now have our full break of the day.
The fifteen riders in full:
Jasper Stuyven (Soudal-QuickStep), Alberto Bettiol (XDS Astana), Mikkel Bjerg (UAE Team Emirates XRG), Michael Valgren (EF Education-Easypost), Andreas Leknessund, Markus Hoelgaard (both Uno-X Mobility), Toon Aerts (Lotto Intermarché), Larry Warbasse (Tudor), Johan Jacobs, Axel Huens, Josh Kench (all Groupama-FDJ), Francesco Busatto (Alpecin-Premier Tech), Mark Donovan (Pinarello Q36.5), Mirco Maestri, Diego Pablo Sevilla (both Polti VisitMalta)
Eleven teams are represented in this break, which means that twelve teams have missed the move. Although it is a big group full of strong riders, it isn't guaranteed to make it to the finish, if there are enough teams willing to help NSN to bring it back.
Josh Kench is the highest ranked rider on GC in the break, and he's down in 27th overall at 20:50. So there's no need for the GC teams to chase.
NSN have stopped chasing, and the gap to the break has consequently ballooned up to almost five minutes. This is looking very promising for this break's chances of surviving to the finish.
Bahrain-Victorious have taken over the pace-setting in the peloton and are riding tempo.
Eulálio is unhappy with something. He's with his team car having a talk, sorting an issue with his shoe
Eulálio's happy again now, and is back in the bunch.
120KM TO GO
The peloton has allowed the breakaway a huge lead. They're now 7 minutes up the road, and surely won't be caught.
There's a long flat section for the riders to enjoy, but in such a big group, at some point hostilities will ignite in the lead group as they begin the battle of wits and stength to try and plot a way to win defeat the other 14 and win the stage.
110KM TO GO
This is one of the biggest gaps we've seen all Giro. It's now gone up to over eight minutes.
Damiano Caruso is one of the Bahrain riders tasked with looking after Afonso Eulálio in the Maglia Rosa. He said yesterday that he still intends to retire at the end of the season, but hopes to ride the Tour de France one last time before then.
100KM TO GO
Still the gap grows. It's now up to nine minutes. That puts Kilech to within sight of the top 20 on GC.
One team that will be frustrated at missing out on the break will be Lidl-Trek. They're still without a stage win at this Giro, and today's late climbs looked like they could have been a perfect launchpad for their man Ciccone. After last year's superb race in which they seemed to light up every stage, they're now starting to run out of time to get anything out of this race.
Another team notable by their absence in the break is Movistar. They have been one of the chief animators at this race, and have so far been unlucky not to have landed a stage. But none of their roster who were so impressive yesterday in dropping the sprinters on the final climbs have managed to get up the road successfully today.
This is a pleasantly relaxed day in the pink jersey for Afonso Eulálio.
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80KM TO GO
Bahrain Victorious are happy to lead the peloton at a steady pace, allowing the gap to grow a little more, to 9:45.
So which of the fifteen riders in the break is best equipped to come out on top and take the stage win today?
With classics, Grand Tour stages and a monument on his palmares Jasper Stuyven is perhaps the best record of them, but he has yet to win a stage at the Giro despite having come so close with a second place finish behind Ballerini in Naples earlier this race. On paper he may well be the quickest in a sprint, but will the stage be decided that way or can rider(s) break clear?
One of the breakaway riders, Francesco Busatto, has needed a bike change.
UAE have been the most successful team in terms of stage wins at this Giro so far, and, having done so much work to help his teammates win previously, today it’s down to Mikkel Bjerg to try and add a fifth. He has one hell of a motor, and will surely try to clip clear at some point and attempt to win solo.
70KM TO GO
The gap's holding steady, at 9:45. There's still about 40km until the first of the two climbs, though the road is going slightly uphill and will continue so for a while.
Toon Aerts is a dangerous man in the event of a group finish. The Belgian would have won the stage yesterday had Segaert not managed to slip away in the finale as he sprinted for second-place, and today has got himself in the break once again.
The gap's grown out to over ten minutes for the first today, and one of the first times this whole Giro.
60KM TO GO
10:19 is the gap as Bahrain lead the peloton, four domestiques pulling for Afonso Eulálio.
Michael Valgren is another quality puncheur in the break, and has previously stated his intent of winning a stage at this Giro. He’s already had a World Tour win on Italian roads this year, at Tirreno-Adriatico, but he’s never won at Grand Tour level in his illustrious career.
Bahrain Victorious leading the peloton.
XDS Astana have been one of the teams of this Giro, with two stage wins already, and could well win another with Alberto Bettiol in the break. He’s been lively already this Giro and, though without a win of any sort since June 2024, has in the past proven himself capable of bringing brilliant performances out the bag from nowhere.
Bettiol also has the distinction of being the only rider in the break to already have a Giro stage win on his palmares.
While we await the finale of today’s Giro stage, the second stage of the women’s Vuelta a Burgos has come to a close. Find out what happened here.
Andreas Leknessund is a rider who has come closer than most in the break to winning a Giro stage, having finished second behind Narváez on stage eight. He's a breakaway specialist, and will no doubt have a plan of when and how to make a move.
The breakaway has just gone through the intermediate sprint, with Sevilla leading them to take the maximum points.
The first of the two climbs, Bieno, is the easier one, lasting 2.4km at 5.7%.
The break swings to the left and start climbing. The race is on!
Groupama is the best represented team in the group with three, and one of their men is leading the group up the climb.
They're working for Josh Kench, who has been climbing well these past two weeks.
Jacobs is the Groupama rider at the front, and still it's him setting the pace. Nobody has been dropped, though.
Bettiol moves up to second in line behind Jacobs, with Valgren in third.
Now the two Polti riders take over at the front, as they near the summit.
Sevilla will be after the KOM points.
There were no attacks on that climb then, so everything's going to come down to the final effort, the Ungiasca.
The Ungiasca is both longer (4.7km) and steeper (7%) that the previous effort, and we're sure to have attacks in the break on it.
Jacobs leads the break onto the climb!
Jacobs is done, and his teammate Huens has taken over the pace-setting.
This is getting very tense.
Huens is setting a fast pace, stringing out the group and helping his teammate Kench by making this climb hard.
Huens leads the group through the Red Bull KM, nobody showing any interest in the bonus seconds.
The biggest names are massing behind Hench, with Bettiol, Leknessund and Stuyven right there.
Bjerg is dropped, as is Warbasse.
Huens is done, and Kench takes over.
Only three riders can keep up with Kench: Bettiol, Leknessund and Valgren.
Kench is doing all the work, with 2km still to climb.
Donovan is alone chasing behind, only a few seconds back.
Stuyven, Aaerts, Sevilla and Busatto are in a group behind Donovan.
And Leknessund has a gap.
Bettiol is chasing a few seconds behind, Kench and Valgren further behind him.
Bettiol is coming back to him, with just 1km left to climb.
Bettiol is only a few seconds behind with 500m left to climb.
Leknessund is holding the gap though.
Bettiol catches him...and Bettiol flies past him!
KOM - UNGIASCA
That's an explosive attack by the Italian, and he leads by a few seconds as he goes over the summit.
Bettiol is flying - he's put 20 seconds into Leknessund in no time!
And he's maintaing his lead on the descent.
Valgren and Kench are together behind Leknessund.
Bettiol still has a few more kilometres of descending until the road flattens out.
There was a dodgy moment for Bettiol when he nearly lost his balence over a speed bump, but he's OK.
It's flat all the way to the finish from here.
Just 3km left to the finish, it doesn't look like Leknessund, or any of the others, will be able to catch Bettiol.
The peloton are on the final climb now, but no sign of any GC action.
Bettiol is growing his lead on the flat. He has 30 seconds on Leknessund and 45 seconds on Kench and Valgren.
Leknessund holds on for second place.
A group of four came together behind, from which Stuyven sprints for third place.
Valgren, Donovan and Kench were the three riders outsprinted by Struyven in that group, in that order.
Bjerg takes seventh, ahead of Busatto, Hoelgaard and Sevilla.
The peloton is only just finishing now. There was no action in the GC race, and all the contenders have finished together on the same time.
That was an exceptional win for Bettiol. It’s only the ninth of his career, but what a palmares he’s built: this Giro stage is added to the one he won in 2021, the Tour of Flanders, and Milano-Torino.
Most impressive of all was the way Bettiol timed himself on the climb. Having spent most of it dangling behind Leknessund, he accelerated in the final few hundred metres to fly dramatically past the Norwegian, and put a fatal amount of time into him before reaching the top.
For Leknessund, it’s another frustrating near miss after his other runner-up finish behind Narváez in Fermo last week. He’s getting close though, and, as a strong climber, will have more opportunities from the breakaways when we reach the mountains.
Thanks for joining us today! Tomorrow sees a shift in tempo at the Giro, as the race enters the mountains for its final phase. This is where the race for the Maglia Rosa will ignite once more - and Afonso Eulálio’s long reign in pink come under its sternest so far. Be sure to tune in tomorrow for all of the action for what promises to be both a thrilling and crucial day in the race.
