Stage 13

The road

At the start

The shortest day, before the weekend

Lars Bak's win in Sestri Levante has lifted Sandy Casar to third overall at twenty-six seconds and Ivan Santaromita to fifth; Joaquim Rodríguez still leads Ryder Hesjedal by seventeen. Tomasz Marczyński finished outside the time limit. Today is the shortest road stage of the race, a hundred and twenty-three kilometres to Cervere — and every rider in it knows the mountains start tomorrow.

How it was won

1. 121 km to go

   Three trains, no break

   Keizer and Failli are pulled back with twenty-one kilometres left and the rest of the day becomes a duel of lead-outs: three and sometimes four trains abreast, nobody able to hold the front for long.

2. 2At the line

   Cavendish picks the lock

   Orica come up the right and Cavendish is pinned against the left-hand barriers with five hundred metres left. He threads through half a dozen riders, takes Hunter's wheel, finds daylight, freewheels as it shuts, finds it again — and is gone. His third stage of this Giro, and the best bunch sprint of the race.

The result