That last climb had also caught Amador out, but not as much and he had descended like a demon to get back on and complete his dream. His large group of 14 was led home by Vincenzo Nibali in third place on the stage, who took enough bonus seconds to leapfrog Alejandro Valverde into third place overall by two seconds. Up ahead of them on the stage was Giovanni Visconti and 43sec further ahead of him was team Sky's Mikel Nieve who had salvaged a little pride for Team Sky who seen their GC ambitions vanish when their other Mikel -- Landa -- abounded earlier in the week.
It had been a rough Giro for Team Sky before today. With all their eggs in the Landa basket for the overall title, it left Sebastian Henao as their best placed man overall some thirteen and a half minutes adrift when that basket dropped and the eggs cracked.
The tactic of putting one man up for the overall contention and keeping nobody else close, at least for the first half of a grand tour, just in case, is often considered a flawed one when that sole leader falls ill or crashed out. But only in hindsight when that unfortunate circumstance does arise. Look at a team like Movistar who as I write this have the pink jersey in their team with Amador and Valverde in 4th. Likewise Astana have Nibali and Fuglsang in the top 10. It's a nice luxury to have, but not always a realistic one. At some stage both teams, especially Movistar, will have to have one sacrifice himself completely for the other...they will just hope they don't make that move a day too early.
It's also easier said than done to keep two riders up high in the overall contention just in case one of the two comes a cropper. At what point do you indeed sacrifice one for there other? Do you call it on, say, stage 12 only for the one you choose to lead to fall apart the next day, just as his team-mate has plummeted down the overall standings? As last years Tour de France showed us, the first week can often require the sacrifice of an entire team in aid of their leader. Though consider that Sky did have Geraint Thomas in the wings of Froome for quite some time at that Tour, and a couple of times they had to turn the baton over to Richie Porte only for the Australian to crack.
There's certainly a method to going with a plan 'A' and having nothing else. That sole focus on the one goal can win you a race overall and you simply hope that luck will play along. When things do fall apart, you then turn to stage hunting.
And that is where Sky found themselves today. So they'll be delighted that Nieve came good and did so in style. With the likes of Heano, Nicolas Roche, David Lopez and Philip Deignan, among others, on their team and now free of any obligation to the general classification battle, it would come as no surprise if they won another stage or two before this race ends. But who knows, by the final week there might be so few riders left with a shot at the overall that most teams find themselves loaded with riders completely focused on winning stages.
2016 Giro d'Italia, stage 13 result:
| 1. Mikele Nieve (Sky) 2. Giovanni Visconti (Movistar) 3. Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) 4. Rafal Majka (Tinkoff) 6. Stefan Denifl (IAM) |
in 4h31'49"
@ 43" @ 1'17" all s.t. |
General classification after stage 14:
| 1. Andrey Amador (Movistar) 2. Bob Jungels (Etixx - Quick Step) 3. Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) 4. Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) 5. Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo) 6. Rafal Majka (Tinkoff) |
in 54h05'50"
@ 26" @ 41" @ 43" s.t. @ 1'37" |
