Sam Bennett (BORA – hansgrohe) netted another podium place at the Giro d’Italia today when he sprinted to second place on stage 13 at Nervesa della Battaglia. The stage was won by Elia Viviani (Quick-Step Floors) who increased his lead in the points competition.
The riders faced a completely flat course over 180km from Ferrara to Nervesa della Battaglia with two intermediate sprints, one at the 70km mark and the second one after 127km along the way and therefore another bunch sprint was expected.
As with previous stages, a group of five riders went up the road and built a gap of three minutes. With 13km to go the riders had to tackle a short climb, where BORA – hansgrohe stayed in the front of the main bunch and set the pace together with Quick-Step Floors.
Six kilometres before the finish the five escapees were caught and the expected bunch sprint was set up. Approaching the finale, the sprinters teams started to form their lead-out, and Bennett stayed on the wheel of Viviani. However, the Italian proved fastest today crossing the line first ahead of yesterday´s stage winner Bennett with Danny van Poppel (LottoNL-Jumbo) in third.
Sam Bennett – “The team worked again perfectly together and protected me the whole day. In the finale I couldn´t overtake Viviani I was a little too far behind and couldn’t make back the ground but I am happy with my second place. Tomorrow will be a really tough stage, where I want to support our GC contenders as best as possible.”
Christian Pömer, BORA – hansgrohe sports director – “Even today: Big compliment to the whole team. After Sam’s two stage victories, of course, we were motivated to go for another good result, which meant again a lot of work for us. We aren´t here with just a sprinter team, we also have two riders in the overall ranking. But we followed the plan and the boys worked good together. Sam took second after 5km sprint without a lead-out. I think that shows his great shape. Tomorrow will be a day for the GC contenders but with this spirit at the moment we are confident, we will see what the outcome will be.”
