Colombian Esteban Chaves produced a spectacular ride for ORICA-GreenEDGE to win stage fourteen of the Giro d’Italia yesterday, attacking repeatedly on the final climbs to distance his more fancied rivals and move up to third on the general classification.
After finishing fifth at last year’s Vuelta a Espana, Chaves has made no secret about his and the team’s ambitions for the Giro d’Italia and the 26-year-old chose the toughest stage of the race to make his move.
Distancing race favourites Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) on the Passo Valparola, the last of six categorised climbs, Chaves continued to accelerate with Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo) all the way to the finish before winning the sprint convincingly after executing a perfect approach to the line.
“After 5,000metres of climbing I’m tired but I’m really really happy,” said Chaves. “Winning the Queen stage at the Giro d’Italia is really special.”
“This is not only for me but for the team who worked really well today. I want to thank everyone involved with ORICA-GreenEDGE because this team is like a big family.”
“Everyone was riding at their limits,” he said. “Kruijswijk started his attack then I tried to follow. It was a steep climb and then we saw Nibali was dropped so we started to work together.”
“There is a lot of this race left and this is great but we will see what happens tomorrow.”
