VAL MARTELLO: Movistar rider Nairo Quintana won a dramatic and confused 16th stage of the Giro d’Italia yesterday to snatch the overall leader’s pink jersey from fellow Colombian Rigoberto Uran.
Quintana, last year’s Tour de France runner-up, pulled away in a controversial descent from the Stelvio pass and increased the gap in the final climb of the 139km trek from Ponte Di Legno.
There was confusion as organisers appeared to neutralise the race during that descent, made dangerous by the terrible weather conditions, but then told teams to ignore the instruction.
“Wrong communication: no neutralisation for the descent from the Passo dello Stelvio. Sorry for the wrong information,” the Giro’s official Twitter feed said.
Not everyone was clear about it, however. “Neutralisation of the Stelvio-descent wasn’t brought to all team cars. Big confusion,” Team Saxo Tinkoff wrote on their Twitter feed. Later yesterday, organisers said that they never intended to neutralise the descent.
“In consideration of audio recordings of instructions relayed to Directeurs sportifs during today’s stage, the Directors of the Giro d’Italia would like to clarify that Race Radio provided an inaccurate interpretation of the indications stipulated by the Directors,” they said.
“As previously stated, the intention was to guarantee rider safety during the first section of the descent (the first six hairpins, approximately 1500 metres) of the Passo dello Stelvio, where visibility was restricted due to low cloud and fog.”
Riding his first Giro, Quintana finished the stage eight seconds ahead of Canada’s Ryder Hesjedal and Frenchman Pierre Rolland.
Quintana now leads Uran, who finished the stage in ninth place and 4:11 down, by 1:41 with Australian Cadel Evans in third place overall 3:21 behind.
“I don’t understand why there is a polemic (dispute). I made up more time on the climb, we didn’t make so much on the descent,” said Quintana.
It was a day to remember as riders suffered gruelling moments in the Dolomites.
Rain froze on the TV cameras as the riders went through a snowy Gavia pass before taking on the feared Stelvio climb.
REUTERS
