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Modolo wins his first - Aru new man in Pink

On a wet stage the finale caused the havoc everyone was fearing. A crash just outside the 3 km mark affected all the GC favorites while Lampre delivered Sacha Modolo safely and perfectly for a free run at the stage win. Coming unscathed out of the crash Fabio Aru took enough seconds to propel him into the Maglia Rosa.

By Jens
LUK BENIES/AFP/Getty Images

Sacha Modolo has long been one of the most promising Italian printers and today he confirmed that with his first Grand Tour stage win. On a short flat stage where the sprinters teams held the breakaway on a short leash to ensure a sprint finish Lampre came out on top in a wet and treacherous finale. Modolo got the perfect leadout and launched ahead of the competition. A bit of drifting to the right troubled a chasing and closing Nizzolo enough to make sure that Modolo could pip the Trek rider on the line but the race jury had no objections to the maneuver.

The crunch moment on a sleepy stage came at 3300 meters before the finale just as teams had been positioning themselves for the sprint and GC teams were keeping their riders safe hoping to get inside the magic 3000m line where crashes wouldn't mean timelosses. Unfortunately though disaster struck just seconds too soon as riders touched wheels sending a ripple of crashes all over the road. Contador crashed but quickly got a new bike from a teammate, Porte went down too but was left on the ground longer and in the end got a bike from Kiriyenka, a bike so large he had to pedal standing up to the finish. Contador lost 40 seconds to the winning Modolo, Porte lost 2 minutes 6 seconds in what is shaping up as a nightmare Giro as he is now 5.05 behind the new leader Aru on GC. Aru and Uran escaped the mayhem and Aru now gets to ride tomorrows TT in the pink jersey which should be a huge motivator.

Top 10 Stage 13

1 MODOLO Sacha ITA LAM 3:03:08 0:00 10"
2 NIZZOLO Giacomo ITA TFR 3:03:08 0:00 6"
3 VIVIANI Elia ITA SKY 3:03:08 0:00 4"
4 PORSEV Aleksandr RUS KAT 3:03:08 0:00
5 GROSU Eduard Michael ROU NIP 3:03:08 0:00
6 RICHEZE Axel Maximiliano ARG LAM 3:03:08 0:00
7 HOFLAND Moreno NED TLJ 3:03:08 0:00
8 RUFFONI Nicola ITA BAR 3:03:08 0:00
9 MEZGEC Luka SLO TGA 3:03:08 0:00
10 HAUSSLER Heinrich AUS IAM 3:03:08 0:00

General Classification

1 ARU Fabio ITA AST 54:20:35 0:00
2 CONTADOR VELASCO Alberto ESP TCS 54:20:54 0:19
3 LANDA MEANA Mikel ESP AST 54:21:49 1:14
4 KREUZIGER Roman CZE TCS 54:22:13 1:38
5 CATALDO Dario ITA AST 54:22:24 1:49
6 URAN URAN Rigoberto COL EQS 54:22:37 2:02
7 CARUSO Damiano ITA BMC 54:22:47 2:12
8 AMADOR Andrey CRC MOV 54:22:56 2:21
9 VISCONTI Giovanni ITA MOV 54:23:15 2:40
10 TROFIMOV Yury RUS KAT 54:23:50 3:15

and way behind.......

17. Richie Porte  + 5.05

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