Giro d'Italia: Ulissi makes it two on stage 13

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Diego Ulissi (UAE Team Emirates) surged across the line in a thrilling finish in Monselice to take the stage 13 victory in the Giro d'Italia. Ulissi took his eighth career Giro victory and second stage in the 2020 edition with a bike throw over the maglia rosa João Almeida (Deceuninck-QuickStep) and Patrick Konrad (Bora-Hansgrohe).

Almeida gained valuable bonus seconds with his lunge to extend his lead in the general classification, now a 40-second margin over Wilco Kelderman (Sunweb), and 49 seconds over Pello Bilbao (Bahrain McLaren).

With the GC leaders bunched together on the final climb, less than 20km from the finish, Ulissi moved to the front, pushed the pace and created a small split, which gave him space from top sprinters Arnaud Démare (Groupama-FDJ) and Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe).

In the finish, Brandon McNulty powered to the front and propelled his teammate Ulissi to the front of the bunch for the victory.

"We did a great job on the last climb and the team set-up me up perfectly. We dropped the sprinters and reduced the peloton to a small group," Ulissi said.

"I was tired after doing the climb so fast but McNulty was fantastic in the way he led it out. I saw I’d got my wheel ahead and won. I've been on form all season. I didn't expect to win another stage but it's a great feeling."

In the closing kilometres on the southern edge of the Euganean Hills, Deceuninck-QuickStep led the peloton in hopes of giving Almeida the stage win but the maglia rosa holder missed out by half a wheel. 

"I'm absolutely disappointed. For the last 13 stages my team has been just incredible, and today they deserved the victory. That's cycling, we did our best. It was close," said the 22-year-old Portuguese rider now in his 11th day in the pink leader's jersey. 

"I'm also happy because I took a few seconds but the main goal was the stage win. I knew Ulissi was in the group and in the last 500 metres his team came from the right and I went to his wheel. Then Mikkel [Honore] did an excellent lead out - when [Ulissi] started I started as well. I was really close - but the finish line was there and he won."

The lead group of 20 included a who's-who of GC contenders, keeping the list status quo. With his one intermediate sprint point, Démare added to his lead over Sagan in the maglia ciclamino with 221 to 184 points. Ruben Guerreiro (EF Pro Cycling) continues to lead the mountains classification, while Almeida is the best young rider.

How it unfolded

Sunshine and flat roads were on the menu for Friday's 192-kilometre stage that started in Cervia, offering no significant obstacles in the opening three-quarters of the stage. The hurdles for the sprinters would be in the closing 40 kilometres with a pair of grippy climbs, both fourth category, as the peloton entered the Euganean hills, ancient volcanoes that overlook the Padovan-Venetian plain and then head to the rather uncomplicated finish in Monselice.

Androni Giocattoli–Sidermec fired a few riders up the road in the early kilometres, but no luck. It took close to 30 kilometres before a move of seven riders finally stuck, which included a pair from Androni Giocattoli–Sidermec, Simon Pellaud and Simone Ravanelli, along with Geoffrey Bouchard (AG2R La Mondiale), Rodrigo Contreras (Astana Pro Team), Alessandro Tonelli (Bardiani CSF Faizane), Harm Vanhoucke (Lotto Soudal), Lorenzo Rota (Vini Zabù–KTM). Ten kilometres into the break they had a 2:57 advantage. 

The group of seven worked well together, but as the kilometers went by so did the seconds on their lead. With 128km to go, the advantage was down to 1:45. Behind, Israel Start-Up Nation's Daniel Navarro drove the pace, with a turn by Cofidis Solutions Credits, who have not won a stage yet.

A surge from the lead group saw Pellaud, in his second consecutive day in a break, go clear to grab maximum points at the first intermediate sprint at Rovigo. Back in the bunch, it would be Démare making a move for the leftovers of one point to pad his 36-point lead over Sagan. There was no move from the Bora leader, who seemed to be saving everything for the climbs and sprint finish.

The time bonus sprint at Galzignano Terme resulted in a repeat performance by Pellaud, who took top honours in the breakaway. A few kilometres later as he hit the lower slopes of the Roccolo climb, Pellaud was the first to drop from the breakaway, along with Contreras.

A series of ramps on this fourth category climb, some reaching a gradient 20 per cent, made it the perfect location for attacks. From the lead group, Ravanelli pushed the pace to try to go solo, but he couldn't continue on his own. After reducing his forward momentum, it would be Tonelli working with Bouchard to gain time on the remnants of their breakaway partners. 

It was on the same climb, with 33.5km to go, that Sagan shook things up by attacking the peloton, reducing the margin of the five leaders to 45 seconds. With help from his teammate Matteo Fabro, Sagan managed to drop Démare, with the entire Groupama-FDJ team rolling back to help their sprinter.

On the technical descent leading to the second and final category 4 climb, Bora's work had indeed rattled the peloton, with only about 30 riders in the main group, including the maglia rosa. 

Groupama-FDJ found themselves working even harder to try to propel Démare back into the sprint picture for the finish, which was accomplished just before the second climb. Démare's team went straight to the front of the peloton to set the pace heading to the final climb.

The Muro di Calaone, just under 10 per cent gradient for 2.1 kilometres, a narrow, twisting route through dense woodland was only half as steep as the first category 4 incline, and the two-man break of Bouchard and Tonelli hit the climb with a 32-second margin. 

Ulissi made the first move from the peloton on the climb, which still included all the GC leaders. The catch was made to Tonelli, then Bouchard, and only 15km to go. More attacks followed by Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos Grenadiers) then Ruben Guerreiro (EF Pro Cycling) and James Knox (Deceuninck-QuickStep). 

Deceuninck-QuickStep set the pace at the front, putting Sagan and Démare in trouble by the time the GC leaders took on the tricky descent. The front group of 20 riders included all of Almeida's rivals in the top 10 - Kelderman, Bilboa, Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) NTT Pro Cycling, Vincenzo Nibali (Trek-Segafredo), Konrad, Jai Hindley (Team Sunweb), Rafal Majka (Bora-Hansgrohe), Fausto Masnada (CCC Team), and Jakob Fuglsang (Astana). 

Sagan joined forces with Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal), Ben Swift (Ineos Grenadiers), Elia Viviani (Cofidis) and Davide Ballerini (Deceuninck-Quickstep) to form a chasing group of five, who rotated to try to make the catch as the real estate in front of them faded. 

With under 5km to go, Viviani lost touch with the Sagan group and the leaders were still 26 seconds away. Meanwhile, Démare had his own chase with the Sagan group 15 seconds away for any catch to be made. Time, and pavement, had run out.

After an extremely sharp left-hand bend 400 metres from the line, the battle to the line was at full steam. James Knox worked at the front for his teammate Almeida, while Rafal Majka helped Konrad and McNulty spotted his rider Ullisi. The final throw at the line went to the Italian, who won stage 2 in the first week.