Mads Pedersen, the peloton’s ‘Great Dane’, is turning the Giro d’Italia into his own benefit race, powering to his fourth stage victory in the 108th edition.
The former world champion’s fourth win in Friday’s 13th stage may have been his best yet as he sprinted on a brutal uphill finish to Vicenza to pip another strongman superstar Wout van Aerty in a lung-busting haul to the line.
Meanwhile, the tremendous young race leader Isaac del Toro continued to astound just behind them as he battled home a couple of seconds adrift in third place to grab more bonus seconds to help pad out his overall advantage to 38 seconds.
“What an incredible Giro this is. Timing my effort was dictated by instinct. I had to open up on the right side close to the barriers. So I went a bit earlier than I wanted to,” 2019 world road race champ Pedersen said.
“On such a hard day and a finale like this, everyone has burning legs in the finale. It was definitely nice to have seen it before.
“I’m happy with this win and adding another 50 points for the Maglia Ciclamino (purple points jersey). I’m overwhelmed with winning again.”
There was another tremendous effort from top Australian sprinter Kaden Groves, who worked wonders just to stay in the hunt for a second stage win, only to be buried in the final, crushing uphill burst to the Monte Berico sanctuary and eventually coming home nearly half-a-minute down.
As the riders neared the finish of the 180km ride from Rovigo, Pedersen was fourth when he took off to blast into a lead which he clung on to grimly with van Aert on his tail while the bold effort for glory from the 21-year-old del Toro also fell short.
“He’s a crazy strong rider – he’s a monster, I have no words,” said Pedersen’s admiring Lidl-Trek sprint lieutenant, Mathias Vacek.
Tudor Pro’s Michael Storer, Australia’s top hope in the GC, lost a few more seconds in the push towards the line but he’s still 14th in the overall classification, 3 minutes 37 seconds down on del Toro.
The big question now is how UAE Team Emirates are going to handle having the top two in the race, with their designated team leader Juan Ayuso losing a few seconds to the brilliant del Toro by the day.
At 38 seconds behind, Spaniard Ayuso may still be considered their best hope at this stage with the high mountains still to come, but del Toro continues to surprise daily.
In third place now is Italian Antonio Tiberi, 1:18 back, with Simon Yates fourth, 1:20 behind, and Primoz Roglic fifth, 1:35 behind.
The mostly flat 14th stage on Saturday follows a 195km route from Treviso over the border into Slovenia with a finish in Nova Gorica with Groves expected to be in contention this time.
With agencies
