Giro d'Italia: Giacomo Nizzolo breaks his duck with stage 13 victory

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Giacomo Nizzolo (Qhubeka Assos) ended his run of 11 second places in Giro d’Italia sprints, winning in Verona with a long, intense effort and pursuit of late attacker Eduardo Affini (Jumbo-Visma).

Affini was clear and seemingly on the way to victory with 300 metres to go but Nizzolo committed to chasing him down, got into his slipstream and then kicked past him to win.

Affini held on for second place, with Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) taking third ahead of a brace of other sprinters. Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates) looked strong too but lost his saddle in the sprint and finished fifth. Elia Viviani (Cofidis) who was hoping to win in his hometown of Verona, finished ninth.

Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) finished safely in the peloton after a slow ride from Ravenna to Verona and direct run-in to the centre of Verona, retaining the race leader's maglia rosa before Saturday's mountain finish on the steep slopes of Monte Zoncolan.

"It was nice to have a day to rest up after all the hard racing we've faced. From now on there's nothing but hard stages to come," Bernal said, his mind already on the Monte Zoncolan finish.

"It'll be the first long hard climb we do in this Giro. I'll be happy if I can keep the maglia rosa. It'll be a hard stage for sure. I'm sure there will be a big fight."

Nizzolo has twice won the points jersey at the Giro d'Italia but had never won a stage. He had a total of 16 podium finishes and 35 top-10 stage finishes. He was understandably happy and emotional in Verona, his fans cheering for him and hugging him briefly from over the barriers.

"My goal this morning was to be second, maybe this was a trick to get the victory," Nizzolo joked.

"Of course, I'm super happy. The only goal I had today was to sprint and not get blocked in the final so I went quite far in the wind - but I had good legs and it worked out.

"It means a lot. I don't think my value has changed because of victory in the Giro but obviously, it's nice so I will enjoy it."

How it unfolded

The 198km stage took the Giro d'Italia across the flat plains of the Po' delta from Ravenna to Verona and in sight of the mountains of the final week of the Corsa Rosa.

The stage was dedicated to the poet Dante Alighieri in the year of the 700th anniversary of his death and the race passed his tomb on the ride out of the city. Dante is famous for the Divine Comedy that formed the basis for the modern-day Italian language.

The stage profile offered little inspiration for poetry or attacks but when the flag dropped, Samuele Rivi (Eolo-Kometa) and Umberto Marengo (Bardiani-CSF-Faizane) jumped away. Simon Pellaud (Androni Giocattoli) quickly went after them as they fought their own little battle for the Fuga competition. Pellaud was leading with 504km on the attack so far in this year's Giro, Marengo was second at 474km, with Rivi sixth at 240km.

With no wind and the warm sun on their legs, the peloton was not interested in chasing and quickly let the trio open a five-minute gap on the road to Ferrara, the home to the infamous Dr. Michele Ferrari, and where the likes of Lance Armstrong often came for secret coaching and medical advice.

The break reached a maximum lead of 7:35 with 150km to race but the sprinters' team kept them under control, each placing a rider on the front to share the work.  

Rivi beat Marengo at the intermediate sprint in Ferrara and the two pushed on, with some tension in the break that would continue all the way to Verona. Perhaps they could not decide how to share out the intermediate sprint prizes. 

When they came back together, Marengo and Rivi weren't happy with Pellaud and then sat on the Androni rider for a while before words were exchanged.

Later, Pellaud rode on alone and then Rivi and Marengo went clear near Matova, the disputes meaning the peloton accidentally brought down the gap to less than 3:00, with Natnael Berhane doing a lot of the pacing for Cofidis and Viviani.

Rivi took the points at the intermediate in Bagnolo San Vito after 144km, the birthplace of the first maglia rosa Learco Guerra, who won the stage in Mantova and pulled on the maglia rosa in 1931. Marengo was second and Pellaud again came back up to them, with the peloton at 2:30.

The peloton suddenly awoke briefly when Remi Cavagna accelerated, perhaps sniffing the chance of crosswinds with 50km to go on the roads south of Mantova. He was chased down but the peloton eased up when it became obvious there was not enough breeze to end their slumber.

The surge reduced the gap to the trio but the stage had always been a game of cat and mouse and as the gap fell below a minute, the peloton eased again.

It was just 20 seconds with 25km but the peloton eased yet again. It was finally gruppo compatto with seven kilometres to go and so after the slow ride north from Ravenna, the sprint teams could finally do their thing in the long straight road to central Verona.