Spaniard demolishes rivals for overall victory on stage 14 time trial
Saturday 23 May 2015 19:07, UK
Alberto Contador took a commanding lead of the Giro d’Italia by emphatically defeating all of his rivals for overall victory on a 14th-stage individual time trial won by Team Sky’s Vasil Kiryienka.
Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo), who started the day second in the general classification, negotiated the 59.4km course from Treviso to Valdobbiadene 2min 47secs faster than race leader Fabio Aru (Astana), 2min 31sec quicker than Rigoberto Uran (Etixx – Quick-Step) and 4min 6sec ahead of Richie Porte (Team Sky).
His superb time of 1hr 18min 6sec was good enough for third place on the stage and, just a day after losing the pink jersey due to a crash, he now returns to the top of the standings and opens up leads of 2min 28sec over second-placed Aru and 3min 36sec over third-placed Andrey Amador (Movistar).
Despite being well-beaten by Contador, Uran’s 23rd-place finish on the day saw him climb to fourth overall, 4min 14sec down, but Porte’s torrid second week of the Giro continued as he could only finish 55th and is now 8min 52sec adrift of Contador in 17th.
Kiryienka was among the earlier starters and capitalised on favourable wind conditions to claim the third Giro stage win of his career by stopping the clock in 1hr 17min 52sec, which was 12 seconds ahead of runner-up Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana) and 14 ahead of Contador.
Contador said: “I’m really happy but my legs are absolutely killing me. It was really painful. I wasn’t sure how I was today and the wind change was difficult as well.”
Kiryienka said: “It’s a really special victory for me. I go really well in time trials but I had not had a victory for quite a while, so it was nice to take one. It was a long and difficult wait. I was waiting for the maglia rosa [race leader] and the arrival of Alberto Contador. It was a nice day, though. I was lucky.”
The Giro continues on Sunday with a mountainous 165km 15th stage ending with the race's third of six summit finishes, at Madonna di Campiglio.
Stage 14 result
1 Vasil Kiryienka (Blr) Team Sky, 1:17:52
2 Luis Leon Sanchez (Esp) Astana, +12secs
3 Alberto Contador (Esp) Tinkoff-Saxo, +14
4 Patrick Gretsch (Ger) Ag2r-La Mondiale, +23
5 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Lotto-NL-Jumbo, +1:09
6 Tanel Kangert (Est) Astana, +1:17
7 Jurgen van den Broeck (Bel) Lotto Soudal, +1:25
8 Fabio Felline (Ita) Trek Factory Racing, +1:26
9 Tobias Ludvigsson (Swe) Giant-Alpecin, +1:27
10 Luke Durbridge (Aus) Orica-GreenEdge, +1:36
Selected others
23 Rigoberto Uran (Col) Etixx – Quick-Step, +2:45
29 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana, +3:01
55 Richie Porte (Aus) Team Sky, +4:20
General classification
1 Alberto Contador (Esp) Tinkoff-Saxo, 55:39:00
2 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana, +2:28
3 Andrey Amador (Cos) Movistar, +3:36
4 Rigoberto Uran (Col) Etixx – Quick-Step, +4:14
5 Jurgen van den Broeck (Bel) Lotto Soudal, +4:17
6 Dario Cataldo (Ita) Astana, +4:50
7 Mikel Landa (Esp) Astana, +4:55
8 Damiano Caruso (Ita) BMC Racing, +4:56
9 Roman Kreuzger (Cze) Tinkoff-Saxo, +4:57
10 Leopold Konig (Cze) Team Sky, +5:35
Selected others
17 Richie Porte (Aus) Team Sky, +8:52
