Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb) stormed his way to the finish line atop the Oropa climb to win stage 14 of the Giro d'Italia at the head of a high-powered group, following a hard-fought climb up the final kilometres of the ascent. He out-gunned Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin) and Mikel Landa (Sky) on the finishing straight after reeling in a sustained attack by Movistar's Nairo Quintana, who finished fourth, 14 seconds back.
The stage win pushed race leader Dumoulin further ahead of his chief rivals on the overall leaderboard. Including the bonus seconds he claimed at the line, Dumoulin picked up a total of 24 seconds on Quintana and 53 on Bahrain-Merida's Vincenzo Nibali. The Dutchman now leads Quintana by 2:47 with FDJ's Thibaut Pinot sitting third on GC at 3:25.
A three-man break group dominated the flat portion of the stage, with the only action of the day coming once the climb started. Attack followed attack, but no one was able to get away for long. Quintana made his decisive move with four kilometres to go, followed by Zakarin. Dumoulin had been holding himself fairly far back, giving the impression he was perhaps on his limit. But he soon appeared at the front of a small group including Yates, Nibali, Landa and Zakarin, who had been dropped by Quintana.
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The Colombian had no more than about a 14 second lead, and Dumoulin used his time trial skills to move up, catch, and pass Quintana. The two, together with Zakarin and Landa, rode up the final kilometre with Quintana slowly dropping back. Zakarin moved to the front with only a few hundred meters left, but Dumoulin dug deep and passed him within sight of the finish line, to win by three seconds.
Though Quintana, Pinot, Yates, Nibali and Kruijswijk all lost time on the race leader, the biggest loser was no doubt Dumoulin's compatriot Bauke Mollema (Trek Segafredo) who toppled off the podium, going from third place to sixth, 4:32 down. Even the mountain jersey changed hands. Omar Fraile (Dimension Data) fell back early on the climb, and the blue jersey changed over to the broad shoulders of stage winner Dumoulin.
How it unfolded
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