What had been hyped as a battle between Alejandro Valverde and Vincenzo Nibali for the maglia rosa took on a very different aspect in the final kilometres of the Giro d’Italia’s ‘queen’ stage into Corvara. Rather than these former Grand Tour winners, it was Estebán Chaves (Orica-GreenEdge) and Steven Kruiswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo) who took the headlines.
The beaming Colombian Chaves won the stage, outsprinting the Dutchman and Georg Preidler (Giant-Alpecin), who had been in the break of the day along with BMC’s Darwin Atapuma, who was just behind them in fourth.
"I’m really happy. Winning the queen stage in the Giro is really special. This is not only for me, but for the team, who worked really well today. All the guys, the mechanics, soigneurs, people away from the race at the office. Orica-GreenEdge is a big family, thanks to Shayne Bannan, everyone," Chaves said.
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"Everyone was riding at their limits. Kruisjwijk started his attack, then I tried to follow. It was a steep climb, and then when we saw Nibali was dropped we started to work together. There’s a lot of this Giro left. This is great but we’ll see what happens tomorrow."
With Nibali more than half a minute in arrears and race leader Andrey Amador almost four minutes down, Kruiswijk took the maglia rosa from the Costa Rican. He now leads Nibali by 41 seconds, with Chaves at 1:32 and Valverde, the day’s big loser, fourth at 3:06.
“I knew I was with Esteban [Chaves], and for the sprint, I knew that he was very fast," Kruijswijk said. "I think I had in my mind to gain more time on my competitors for the GC and it worked out pretty good. I felt really good all day. I knew that this kind of stage would suit me pretty good, after the first mountain stage we had yesterday. Today, I could attack and really had some good power. I was lucky that I had Esteban with me and we could work together. I’m happy to get the pink jersey."
Watch Giro d'Italia Stage 14 Highlights Video
How it unfolded
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