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Published on Thursday, 22 May 2014 22:28

Giro d'Italia St.13

Fassano to Rivarolo Canavese 

Friday 23rd May, 157kms 

Stage 13, on a Friday - Unlucky for some!? Let's hope we don't see the same sort of finish as in the last stage when Tyler Farrar once again hit the tarmac, taking most of the peloton out of the sprint. I think Tyler needs a new pair of transition lenses.. The finish of this stage is bound to be frantic with an intermediate sprint coming with just 13kms to go!

This is the shortest road stage of the Giro at just 157kms and the last chance for the sprinters before the last stage in Trieste. Nacer Bouhanni has become the sprint king in this race following Kittel's withdrawal and because of Viviani's ongoing misfortune and inability to match the French man's explosive power.

Giaccomo Nizzolo has emerged as his biggest challenger for both stage honours and the red jersey and there could be a battle all the way to the final stage for this. I thought Bouhanni might not get to the finish in Trieste but the red jersey on his back changes that and he should dig in to make it you'd think. Having said that, I think he will find it tough on some of the hard mountain stages to come to finish within the time limit if he really starts to suffer.  The team will have to push him up some hills I think to get him home, will be interesting if they have a commissaire's motorbike with him! 

Today's stage will be very important too for the jersey as the intermediate sprint comes just 13kms from the finish. Any break will have been reeled in to allow the sprinters a shot at more points and if Bouhanni takes both then he'll be well clear of his rivals with 8 stages to go.  

Today's Time Trial was simply stunning by Rigoberto Uran, I don't think many saw that ride coming.. Evans did very well to finish in 3rd place and land the each-way money but the big lay of Malori proved spot on as he limped home in 97th place, over 7 minutes down. Castroviejo was very disappointing but there was a huge storm when he was out on his run and Zoidl also disappointed in 37th. Uran now has a 37" lead on the GC over Evans and it may look like it's all over with Quintana nearly three and a half minutes down in 6th place, but there is a long way to go yet and Quintana has yet to get in to his territory.. He had a cold today apparently and was quite blocked up, so to finish in 13th place was pretty impressive.

Uran is in a great position, but I think he will have a bad day before this is over, just depends on who can take advantage. Don't forget, he lost it in the World's last year when things started getting near the end, crashing out of the race when on a descent with not far to go. Who knows, maybe the pressure will get to him again over the next week and he could make a mistake like that again. 

The Route

The route leaves Fossano and heads norhtwards, initially through the Cuneo region, then crosses the whole province of Turin on the way to Rivarolo Canavese. There's a little climb to get over after 72.4kms at Bardassano but it is just a speed bump more than anything else. They then cross the Po River and passes through the Canavese region. 

They then hit the short, sharp climb of the Salita di Rivara, a Cat 4 climb (1km at 5.3% average, max of 12%). The top comes just 34kms form the line and they soon start on to the finishing circuit of 22kms. After crossing the finish line the route runs across Salassa and Valperga and reaches Cuorgne, where there is an intermediate sprint just 13kms from the line. 

The route back to Rivarolo Canavese is very fast - the finishing straight is 220m long on a nice wide 7m stretch - perfect for an all-out sprint. The problem is that the last few kms, and in particular the last kilometre is once again quite a tricky affair with lots of difficult corners to negotiate. Let's hope we see none of the crashes that have spoiled so much of this race. 

Local boy of the day is Giovanni Visconti, who won two stages last year, he comes from Turin which they pass through on the way. Maybe he will jump off the front on the Bardassano to impress the local fans and family that are probably going to come out to support him.

Contenders and Favourites

When I started writing this preview before any prices came out I reckoned Bouhanni would be evens or shorter, and indeed he is, at best price 8/11 with Bet365. Again, like on the last sprint stage, I think he is absolutely a rock solid favourite to win. But 8/11? He's not exactly Cav or Kittel is he? He has ridden his luck so far in this race, getting through crashes and incidents when others were less fortunate and it's not beyond the laws of probability that he has his first problem tomorrow. It is another chaotic finish tomorrow and with the dip just as they hit the 1km to go mark and the uphill drag for 500m from the 750m to go mark it will make the fight for the last corner vitally important. You can see in the picture on the right the little drag they have to come up just after taking a right at a tricky roundabout that comes just after the cross the bridge in to town with 1km to go.

The little drag will play in to the hands of Nizzolo, Mezgec and Swift possibly but Bouhanni has been right up there on the hilly stuff too. The key point of the whole stage though will come just 250m from the line. After tearing along the Corso Italia after the little drag they suddenly hit a tight right hand bend on a roundabout - the exit of the roundabout will be particularly tricky though as there is a little stone traffic island lying on the road making it a really tight pinch-point. You can see it in the picture below, they come from the direction of the red arrow and the finishing line is up that tree lined road on the Corso Indipendenza.

The team that can get their man to that last bend with a leadout man in front probably wins the stage. It will be a real battle and it would not be surprising if there were crashes along the way. It also wouldn't surprise me if there was a small split as they come through the roundabout and up the drag to the last roundabout above.

Bouhanni has proved what a scrapper he really is and is sure to revel in this sort of finish. But will he still have a leadout man in the last 750m? He has also had good leadouts from his rivals so far like Nizzolo and maybe tomorrow he needs to be on Bouhanni's wheel rather than the other way around. I think if he can get it right this time he will have a great chance of finally breaking Bouhanni's dominance. Danilo Hondo, Felline and Kiserlovski will have a big job heading in to the last two kilometres but I think they can get him in a position for at least a top 3 finish again and is worth backing at 5/1 with Paddy Power each-way, he hasn't lost us money yet.     

Luca Mezgec should be there or thereabouts also but I think he just misses the kick of his two rivals and will have to settle for a 3rd-6th place again I think. Elia Viviani has been very unlucky but as they say, you sometimes make your own luck and he just hasn't been positioned well enough at times. At the start of the Giro I was backing him at the sort of price he is tomorrow but he has disappointed too many times to trust him again tomorrow.

Swift and Ferrari will be 5-10th type guys again I think, as will Ferrari, but what to do with Tyler Farrar? The man is a walking accident zone and once again caused another crash on stage 11. He seems to be going well though up to that and he could be very fired up to produce a result to make amends for Tuesday.. but with that tricky finish I just can't trust him enough to bring myself to back him.

Recommendations:

Back Giaccomo Nizzolo at 5/1 each-way with Paddy Power

Match Bets 

Ferrari to beat Swift at 11/10 with Paddy Power

Nizzolo to beat Bouhanni at 11/5 with Paddy Power

Kelderman to beat Monfort at 5/6 with Bet365