(Reuters) – Einer Rubio thwarted Thibaut Pinot and Jefferson Cepeda to win the shortened 74.6km-stage 13 of the Giro d’Italia on Friday after a bizarre delayed start, with organisers forced to change the route due to adverse weather conditions.
Colombian rider Rubio (Movistar) delivered a perfectly-timed sprint to race past Cepeda (Education–EasyPost) and then Pinot (Groupama–FDJ) on the final climb at Crans Montana to snatch victory and earn his first Grand Tour stage win in style.
The race has been plagued by dreadful weather and organisers had already removed the climb up the Great St Bernard Pass from the 13th stage, shortening the 207km route to 199km due to snow and the risk of avalanches.
Riders made their scheduled departure under heavy rain at Borgofranco d’Ivrea but quickly re-boarded their team buses, before organisers re-routed the start of the stage to Le Chable, at the bottom of the Croix de Couer.
“Given the adverse weather conditions, especially on the Italian side, the Commission decided to meet the athletes’ requests by applying the Extreme Weather Protocol,” organisers said.
Stage six winner Mads Pedersen, who was second in the standings for the points jersey, dropped out of the race after falling ill overnight, becoming the latest rider to abandon this year’s Giro.
“Mads had a troubled night with a cough. He woke up this morning with a sore throat and tracheitis and is not fit to race,” his Trek-Segafredo team said earlier on Friday.
Saturday’s stage 14 is a 193-km ride from Sierre to Cassano Magnago.
(Reporting by Hritika Sharma in Hyderabad, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
