The 13th stage at Giro d’Italia was fast -paced – and in the end Mads Pedersen once again had the strongest legs.
After 180 fast-paced kilometers from Rovigo to Vicenza with several climbs in the last third of the race, Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) won the sprint at the short climb on Friday. The 29-year-old Dane finished a few centimeters in front of Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) after 3:50:24 hours and won his fourth stage on the 108th Italian tour.
Third place went to the 21-year-old Mexican Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), who was able to expand his lead in the overall ranking by 5 seconds. He is now 38 seconds ahead of his Spanish teammate Juan Ayuso.
Tophavorit Primoz Roglic, captain of the German team Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, became sixth with five seconds behind. In the classification, the Slovenian is 1:35 minutes behind del Toro. The decision will be made in the final week if the most difficult mountains are pending.
Attack after the last summit
After the penultimate mountain summit, Romain Bardet (Picnic Post-NL) and Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek) had attacked and drove out a little lead on the departure. On the following flat piece, however, the main field made pace and 600 meters in front of the finish.
Pedersen (29) triumphed in the mountain sprint, who had already won the first, third and fifth stage.
Next chance for Pedersen on the 14th stage
On Saturday the trip of the professionals to the home country of the unique Giro winner Roglic is waiting. From Treviso, 195 kilometers lead to the end of Slovenia with a destination in the city of Nova Gorica.
The largely flat stage contains three short climbs in the fourth category at the end of the race. A mass sprint is conceivable – and thus the next chance for Pedersen. The three-week tour of Italy ends on June 1st in Rome.