Stage 13

The road

At the start

Flat to Jesolo, and roundabouts

Alberto Contador took three seconds and a bonus on Monte Berico and now leads Fabio Aru by seventeen. Simon Gerrans does not start; Stefan Küng, Manuel Belletti and Jarosław Marycz all went home from yesterday. Today is 148 flat kilometres to the seaside at Jesolo, a finish the roadbook itself calls sprinkled with roundabouts, and every GC rider has one instruction before tomorrow's time trial: arrive.

How it was won

1. 169 km to go

   A Zabel wins a sprint

   Rick Zabel lives up to the family name at the second intermediate sprint. The trio's advantage, already interrupted by a closed level crossing, is down to a minute.

2. 24 km to go

   The maglia rosa changes hands on the tarmac

   Just outside the three-kilometre zone — the last place where time still counts — the bunch goes down in a heap. Alberto Contador is behind it. Fabio Aru is in front of it. Nothing about the general classification is decided by climbing today.

3. 3At the line

   Modolo in Jesolo

   Sacha Modolo takes the much-reduced sprint from Nizzolo and Viviani. Behind, Contador loses nearly forty seconds and hands Aru the race lead by nineteen.

The result