Fabio Aru and Mikel Landa have denied that there could be a leadership battle brewing within the Astana team and insisted they are still trying to take on Tinkoff-Saxo's Alberto Contador and win the Giro d’Italia.
Landa and Aru managed to isolate and then attacked Contador in the final part of the climb to Madonna di Campiglio on Sunday but with Aru struggling to hold the wheels after each of Landa’s attacks, the Basque rider opted not to distance his team leader and go mano a mano with Contador, only using his superiority to win the stage with a late surge to pass Yury Trofimov (Katusha).
Landa’s victory saved Astana from embarrassment but did not stop a flurry of questions, especially from the Spanish media, about Aru’s form for the rest of the Giro d’Italia. Landa appears to be stronger than Aru and so could have a legitimate claim to team leadership and a shot at the podium if Aru falters again.
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Landa moved up from seventh to fourth overall, at 4:46 down on Contador after winning at Madonna di Campiglio. Aru is second at 2:35 and appears to be struggling but he tried to stay optimistic.
“Contador showed he’s in great shape but he’s beatable because today we beat him with Mikel,” Aru told Cyclingnews and two Italian television crews after the stage, spinning the stage result as best he could to hide his problems in the final two kilometres when the road kicked up.
"The Astana team have won another stage and that’s the important thing. I saw that Mikel was riding well, so it was right he tried something. I was being marked and so he won. There was no misunderstanding. The important thing was to drop Alberto and the Katusha rider after all the work that our teammates had done for us.”
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