Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) extended his lead in the Giro d’Italia today, winning today’s 131-kilometre fourteenth stage from Castellania to the summit finish at Oropa. The Dutch rider beat Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin) by three seconds with Mikel Landa (Sky) in third a further six seconds down.
His nearest rival Nairo Quintana (Movistar Team) finished 14″ down and thanks to time bonuses, Dumoulin extended his lead by 24 seconds to lead Quintana by 2’47”. Thibaut Pinot sits in third place overall, 3’25” behind Dumoulin.
Quintana looked like he would gain time on Dumoulin on the climb to the finish as he attacked with four kilometres left and got a gap on Dumoulin. However, the race leader fought back with Landa and Zakarin to get back to Quintana’s wheel.
As they raced inside the final kilometre, it was now Quintana who was in trouble, losing touch with the three leaders. Zakarin put in a dig with a few hundred metres left, only to be passed by Dumoulin, who took his second stage win of the race.
After his stage 14 victory Dumoulin said: “I really didn’t expect this, it’s something I had always dreamed about but I didn’t think I could do it. It was a really tough climb and when I couldn’t follow Quintana I remained focused, relaxed and rode at my own pace. At the end I still had something left it was incredible. It’s a good advantage to go into the last week with but we will see how things go and the last week will be much different. It’s still a long way to Milan.”
