Esteban Chaves hopes his upbringing - and especially his training - in the high altitude of homeland Colombia will play in to his hands in Saturday's 14th stage of the Giro d'Italia. But the Orica-GreenEdge rider still expects a brutal day that should last "close to seven hours."
After Friday's 170km 13th stage from Palmanova to Cividale del Friuli, Chaves was eighth overall at 2 minutes 19 seconds to new race leader Costa Rica's Andrey Amador (Movistar) who rose from second place to depose Luxembourg's Bob Jungels (Etixx-QuickStep) whose 17th at 2 minutes 7 seconds to Spanish stage winner Mikel Nieve (Sky) cost him the lead.
Chaves, 13th in the medium mountain stage, finished in a group of 14 at 1 minute 17 seconds and with fellow contenders Italian Vincenzo Nibali (Astana), Spaniard Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), Poland's Rafal Majka (Tinkoff), Russian Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha) and Dutchman Steven Kruijswijk (Lotto-Jumbo).
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The Giro faces a punishing and critical weekend. Saturday's mountainous 14th stage, 210km from Alpago to Corvara includes six categorised climbs with five over 2000m in altitude. While Sunday's 14th stage is a 10.8km mountain time trial from Castelrotto to Alpe di Siusi.
When Chaves was asked outside his team bus after Friday's stage if he expects his experience at high altitude in Colombia where he lives in Bogota will help, he said, laughing: "I hope it is an advantage for us. It is true, it is altitude but more important is keeping warm in the descents, to keep eating and drinking. It's a long, long day. I think it is close to seven hours."
Pressed on which climb he thinks will be the most decisive of the stage, Chaves, who has undertaken reconnaissance of the course, said: "I think the race will be broken in the Passo Gau [the second last climb, rated first category to 2,236m at 168.8km]. It is the hardest one and not so far from the finish. Also the last climb [the Passo Valparola, rated second category to 2,220m at 190.6km] is hard. If you have legs … you can try [to attack] there."
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