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Alberto Contador is the big winner from the individual time trial on stage 14 of the Giro d’Italia. However, the stage win went to Vasil Kiryienka (Sky).
He managed to out ride Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana) and Alberto Contador who finished third just 14 seconds off the pace.
Riders that left early in the stage took the majority of the top 10 receiving favourable wind conditions, however no one was saved from the rain and slippery conditions. Luckily though there were no crashes.
Contador now moves into the pink jersey by 2:30 after Fabio Aru, along with many other General Classification riders struggled. Richie Porte, who was supposed to gain big time today, lost time and Rigoberto Uran didn’t do much better.
Jurgen Van Den Broeck could be another big winner out of the stage finishing in 7th and moving into 5th on the General Classification, whilst with Aru in second Andrey Amador has moved in 3rd position on the General Classification.
The situation at Team Sky will now be an interesting one with Leopold Konig in 10th overall 5:35 down whilst Porte has fallen to 8:52 down.
Tomorrow the race moves into the high mountains ahead of the second rest day and if there is one thing for certain, everyone will attack Contador and Saxo will be placed under monumental pressure.
In the end though today, Vasil Kiryienka too strong taking out the time trial.
Stage 14 of the 2015 Giro d’Italia is going to be one of the most important of the race as the battle for pink intensifies with a hilly 59.4 km time trial from Treviso to Valdobbiadene. Join The Roar from 9:45pm (AEST) for our live coverage.
While the time trial won’t decide who is going to win the Giro, it could certainly make some riders jobs a lot harder than others.
In a reduced bunch sprint Sacha Modolo (Lampre – Merida) managed to take out yesterday’s stage after a perfectly executed lead-out from his team.
Fabio Aru is the new pink jersey on the road after a crash brought down both Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) and Richie Porte (Sky). However his time trialling ability is a long way behind that of Contador and Porte.
This will mean his current lead of 19 seconds to Contador is going to come in very handy instead of chasing time on the individual time trial.
Porte now sits over five minutes behind on general classification and is going to need to basically win the individual time trial by quite a distance to resurrect his Giro.
The route for the individual time trial starts off on flat roads for the first 30km. This will mean the pure time trialists in the peloton will be able to build up an advantage over the climbers. The first intermediate time check of three also comes after 17.6 km.
After the first 30 km the route begins to get a bit more complicated as the riders will go uphill. It has been categorised as a Category 4 climb with 4.9km of climbing as an average gradient of 3.8 per cent, however there are ramps during the climb of up to 9 per cent. That will bring the riders to the top of the climb and the second categorised climb after 35.1km of racing.
Following the climb there will be a short descent, followed by another steep kick up for about 1km. Then a longer, more gradual descent will follow before about 10km of flat riding to the third time check of the day which will be reached after 49.5km.
Shortly after the third time check the riders will start climbing again. While the climb is in two parts and separated by a short descent it does ramp up to a gradient of 10 per cent in some sections. When they crest the summit of the climb, the final 2km are mostly downhill. While it will be fast, it is quite technical with some sharp corners in the final km.
Another rainy day is forecast adding difficulty to the final descent and obviously the whole stage.
Contador, Porte and Rigoberto Uran (Etixx – Quickstep) are the three biggest GC favourites for the stage and will all be looking for every second out on the road.
Other contenders include Luke Durbridge and Michael Hepburn (Both Orica-GreenEDGE), Michael Rogers (Tinkoff-Saxo), Sylvain Chavanel (IAM Cycling), Patrick Gretsch (Ag2R La Mondiale) and Vasil Kiryienka (Sky)
Another man who could win the stage is Ilnur Zakkarin (Katusha). Relatively unheard of before he won the Tour of Romandie and almost beat former world champion Tony Martin in a time trial, he is in strong form after a breakaway stage win in Imola on Stage 11.
The Astana situation is an interesting one. Realistically Dario Cataldo could pass Fabio Aru on GC during the time trial. Luis Leon Sanches, Tanel Kangert and Mikel Landa all also look to be in strong form at the moment.
Prediction
Richie Porte has been unlucky but is in good form. He will be fired up and I expect him to take the stage ahead of Zakkarin and Durbridge.
I also expect Aru to lose the pink jersey back to Contador, while Cataldo should overtake him on the overall standings.
Join The Roar from 9:45pm (AEST) for our live coverage of what should be a fascinating stage and don’t forget to leave a comment if you are following along!