Canola takes slick win on stage 13 of the Giro d'Italia

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Marco Canola (Bardiani CSF) sprinted to an unexpected breakaway victory on the 13 stage of the Giro d'Italia. Jackson Rodriguez (Androni Giocattoli) and Angelo Tulik (Europcar) took second and third.

Canola led the three riders, who had formed part of an early six-man break, around the final corner. Rodríguez came around him just before the line, but the Italian held him off to take his first ever Giro stage victory.

“This is a big surprise,” said Canola after the stage. “It's my first big victory. I have always hoped that this would happen.”

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The third-year pro has been with the Italian Professional Continental team his entire career. This was his second career win, having previously won a stage at the Tour de Langkawi in 2012. This season he also picked up the mountains classification at Tirenno-Adriatico.

It was supposed to be another day for the sprinters, with FDJ.fr doing most of the work on the front. However, with less than 10 kilometres to go the sprinters teams began calling each others' bluff. The discussions allowed the trio out front to extend their gap slowly. Finally Garmin-Sharp took up the chase, but it was too late and the peloton crossed the line just 11 seconds after the escapees.

Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ.fr) won the sprint from the bunch, extending his lead in the points classification over Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek Factory Racing). There were no changes in the general standings, as Rigoberto Uran (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) successfully defended the leader's jersey he won the previous day.

An early break

This day's break took off practically from the start. Rodriguez, Canola, Tulik, Jeffry Johan Romero (Colombia), Gert Dockx (Lotto-Belisol), and Angelo Tulik (Europcar) were the first to go, and were soon joined by Maxim Belkov (Katusha). The field had no problem with letting them go, as Rodriguez was the best of them, at 57 minutes down.

This was another stage for the sprinters, though, and they weren't going to let things get out of hand. FDJ.fr and Giant-Shimano led the field and kept the group on a short line, not letting them get more than three and a half minutes.

The rain made a return today, and not the rain itself, but the rain jackets caused several problems. Vladimir Gusev (Katusha) and Thomas Dekker (Garmin-Sharp) both had rain jackets caught in their rear wheels. The Russian crashed but the Dutchman managed to stay upright and both re-joined the peloton.

A hailstorm hit the road with about 30 km to go, but fortunately had stopped before the riders arrived. The roads were still wet and the piled up hail looked almost like snow drifts. Race commissaires slowed down the field as it came through, and everyone made it through safely.

The peloton hit the finishing circuit of some 22 km only 1:42 behind the six leaders. FDJ was determined to bring things together, and although a number of other teams jumped in to help, the efforts were relatively uncoordinated. No one was really willing to help Bouhanni win yet another stage. The other sprinter teams seemed to be calling one another's bluff – much to the benefit of the break group.

That group had the shrunk to only three riders, Rodriguez, Tulik and Canola. They hung desperately to their one-minute gap. With 3.5 km to go, Canola attacked with Rodriguez immediately following and Tulik finally catching up.

Behind them, Garmin finally moved to the front and started picking up the pace. The three leaders were eying one another within the final kilometre, when the peloton finally and furiously appeared behind them with only 700 meters to go.

Canola went for it on the final corner, and although it looked as if Rodriguez might catch him, the Italian held on for the narrow win.

Bouhanni didn't get his fourth stage win, but led the peloton across the finish line only 11 seconds later.

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