Viviani completes hat-trick with stage 13 win – Giro d’Italia

It took a while but Quick-Step Floors sprinter Viviani finally added to his early brace from the Israeli grande partenza with a well-earned third win in a muted bunch sprint at the end of the 180-kilometre stage from Ferrara.

Viviani powered from the back wheel of compatriot Sacha Modolo (EF Education First-Drapac) to pass the plucky late attacker Marco Coledan (Wilier Triestina) on the home straight and zip clear to win by two bike lengths.

With his own late surge, Ireland’s Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe) edged ahead of Dutchman Danny van Poppel (LottoNL-Jumbo) to take second place and keep his faint hopes of winning maglia ciclamino alive: 40 points separate the two riders with only one more bunch sprint expected left in the race: Stage 21 to Rome.

In a day off for the big GC favourites, Britain’s Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) finished safely in the pack to retain his 47-second lead over Dutchman Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) ahead of back-to-back summit showdowns in the mountains.

The wildcard Androni Giocattoli team kept up their 100% record of getting into every break of the race when local rider Andrea Vendrame joined Markel Irizar (Trek-Segafredo), Marco Marcato (UAE Team Emirates), Alessandro Toneeli (Bardiani CSF) and Eugert Zhupa (Wilier Triestina-Selle Italia) in an early move as the race crossed the pan-flat plains of north-east Italy.

Despite some remonstrations within the break – notably between veterans Irizar and Marcato – the escapees managed to maintain a gap of three minutes for the vast proportion of the day as both Marcato and Zhupa traded wins in intermediate sprints.

After a truce in the first sprint, Viviani cannily rode close to the barriers to lead the peloton through the second intermediate sprint and pick up an extra three points in the maglia ciclamino competition, edging ahead of Bennett by 25 points in the virtual standings.

The finish was billed as a big showdown between the only sprinters to have won two stages each on the 101st edition of La Corsa Rosa – and it didn’t disappoint; well, not unless you were Bennett.

The five escapees retained a one-minute gap going over the only climb of the day with 20km remaining, with Colombia’s Esteban Chaves (Mitchelton-Scott) among those to be distanced by the main pack. After a twisting descent – and a short falling of drizzle – the break was swept up with 6km remaining to set things up for the showpiece finale.

Germany’s Tony Martin, who had earlier led a short-lived thwarted chase on the climb, set tempo for the Katusha-Alpecin train of Belgium’s Baptiste Planckaert, while Van Poppel’s LottoNL-Jumbo train were heavily present.

But it was Italy’s Coledan who put in a surprise attack with one kilometre remaining, the 29-year-old opening up a gap in the vain hope of giving Wilier Triestina an option despite the withdrawal of their sprinter Jakub Mareczko in the opening week.

Coledan dug deep but was eventually swallowed up inside the final two-hundred metres as Modolo led the chase with Viviani powering through in unbeatable fashion.

So emphatic one day earlier at Imola, Bennett was quick but left himself with too much work to do, while Van Poppel once again displayed his lack of killer-instinct. Modolo and South Africa’s Ryan Gibbons (Dimension Data) completed the top five.

After his fourth career win on the Giro, 29-year-old Viviani celebrated in style as he crossed the line – before throwing his bike down bullishly and milking the congratulations from his team-mates having bounced back from his shocker in the Imola rain.

“After a few difficult days that is what I need and what the team needs because they worked hard today and they deserve it,” he said.

“Yesterday was a bad day and it worried us. But we’re really determined to keep this jersey all the way to Rome and we wanted to win after such a beautiful start. The sporting life is never easy. You win, you lose, you have a good moment, you have a bad moment, you live a dream, the dream ends, then you need to restart another dream, so… Now there’s one week to go and we have this jersey and the important thing is to win.”

As for Bennett, he remained philosophical and confident – despite needing a miracle to overturn the 40-point deficit on his rival.

“I just couldn’t get on the right wheel and had to come from very far back,” he said. “I think I was the quickest in the final but I just couldn’t get out. There’ll be another day.”

If that’s the case, then it will not be for a while. Back-to-back finishes on Monte Zoncolan and Sappada are followed – after Monday’s rest day – by the all-important time trial. And with the rolling Stage 17 then followed by three summit finishes, the battle for the maglia ciclamino may not resume until the final stage of the race to Rome.

The focus now switches to Yates and his bid to become the first Briton to win the Giro. Already a double stage winner on the race, the 25-year-old will hope to put more time into the defending champion over the weekend and ahead of Tuesday’s decisive time trial.

Satuday’s 186km Stage 14 includes four climbs ahead of the fearsome Cat.1 ascent of the Zoncolan where Yates will look to pile the pressure on his main rivals Dumoulin, Thibaut Pinot(Groupama-FDJ) and Domenico Pozzovivo (Bahrain Merida).