As microcosms of this Giro d’Italia go, it was hard to beat. No fewer than five Astana riders led the pink jersey group as it sped towards the base of the climb to Madonna di Campiglio at the end of stage 15, while overall leader Alberto Contador found himself without a single Tinkoff-Saxo teammate for company.
Advantage Fabio Aru? Not exactly. Moments later, as they approached the intermediate sprint at Pinzolo, Contador simply zipped off the front and helped himself to a two-second bonus before easing back into the group. The Astana quintet looked on, at a loss, perhaps, about how to deal with a man whose default setting is defiance.
It was a similar refrain on the climb to the finish, where Contador parried the attacks of Aru and Mikel Landa in the final three kilometres, and even unleashed a testing combination of his own for good measure. He was ultimately content to let Landa slip away for the stage victory, while he outsprinted Aru for third place and another four seconds in bonuses to extend his lead to 2:35 over the Sardinian.
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“In the final sprint, you always want to pick up a bonus if you can, especially as it doesn’t use up energy that might cost you later in the race,” Contador said. “Clearly everyone would like to win a stage of the Giro, especially in a legendary place like Madonna di Campiglio. But it was a complicated climb today, there were a lot of Astana riders in the front group, and the gradients weren’t very steep for much of the climb. Landa was incredible, too, so it wasn’t easy.”
Rather than straining to land a knock-out blow, Contador’s careful approach would have Floyd Mayweather nodding in approval. Already a clear leader on the scorecard, the Spaniard seems content to keep landing jabs here and there as he runs out the clock on this Giro, particularly with the most lucrative prize fight of all, the Tour de France, still to come in July.
“I need to analyse every stage, there might be days where I could attack rather than defend, if my legs allow,” Contador said of a final week that includes the tappone over the Mortirolo as well as summit finishes at Cervinia and Sestriere.
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