Landa wins Giro del Trentino

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Mikel Landa (Team Sky) showed he's on form for the Giro d’Italia and back to his best after a difficult spring by winning the Giro del Trentino in a confident display of riding.

The Basque rider again came under attack from Astana and AG2R La Mondiale during the hilly final stage but chased every attack down. He took a risk by allowing a small select group to fight for the stage victory in a sprint but finished third behind Tanel Kangert (Astana) and Matteo Busato (Southeast). That ensured he picked up a four-second time bonus and allowed him to hold onto the leader’s purple jersey, winning the overall by two seconds ahead of Kangert.

Landa was isolated for much of the final part of the stage but played it cool and let his rivals attack and chase each other in the final 40km of the stage to Cles. He seemed the strongest in the front group and the race and was unflustered by a stream of attacks.

"With the bonus seconds at the finish, it was always going to be dangerous today," Landa said after opening the spumante on the final podium and pulling on the final purple winner’s jersey.

"When I saw Kangert with Jakob Fuglsang I thought they would have a good sprint but fortunately, I was able to take some bonus seconds of my own and keep the jersey. I'm really happy.”

“The team did really good work to keep this jersey. It was a difficult day. The last climb was really hard and because of that, I lost some teammates. Fortunately, Philip was able to give me some really good support in the final kilometres.”

"It'll be really nice for me to arrive at the Giro d'Italia having taken this victory and it will give me more confidence to fight for the maglia rosa. Now I will recover, train hard and then go to the Giro!"

Nibali goes on the attack

The tough 160km stage around the spectacular Val di Non apple groves in the shadows of the snow-covered mountains was also going to offer a final tough day of racing. However, the day got even harder when Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) went on the attack after 40km with Damiano Cunego (Nippo-Vini Fantini) and Russia's Alexander Foliforov (Gazprom-Rusvelo). Landa and Team Sky took a calculated decision to let them go and so the trio gained three minutes.

The move looked good for Astana. It was a chance for Nibali to test his form after a difficult week which saw him unable to stay with Landa on the climbs. Nibali and his coach Paolo Slongo claimed it was because he has only recently completed a long altitude training camp on Mount Teide to preparing for the Giro d’Italia but he looked stronger as he often drove the break along.

A chase by Team Sky and AG2R meant Nibali was caught on the final big climb of the day -the Forcella d Brez, but he managed to stay with the leaders for a while and headed to Belgium for Liege-Bastogne-Liege with growing confidence.

The climb left Landa isolated with Astana using Fuglsang and Michele Scarponi to constantly attack Landa. AG2R also joined the attacks with Jean-Christophe Peraud, Romain Bardet and Domenico Pozzovivo taking turns to jump away. However, Landa was always able to follow them and had help from other riders who managed to stay in the select front group over the climb and on the rolling roads through the apple groves. Phil Deignan also played a role by rejoining the group after the descent and ensured that Landa’s group controlled most of the attacks.

Stefano Pirazzi was desperate to win for Bardiani-CSF but was joined by Peraud in a late move after others had tried and failed to get away. They stayed away until inside the final kilometre but were caught before the sprint. Kangert risked everything on the sprint and won the stage and there were a few tense moments for Landa before the race judges confirmed he had finished third and so secured the time bonus that gave him the overall race victory.

He became the first ever Spanish winner of the Giro del Trentino and followed on from former Team Sky rider Richie Porte but had little time to celebrate. He now faces several days of Giro d’Italia recon with some teammates in the Italian Alps and Dolomites; the Giro d’Italia is just two weeks away.

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