Bicycling Australia
Italian Vincenzo Nibali triumphed at the 2013 Giro d’Italia; a popular win for the man they call ‘The Shark’. Nibali secured the magliarosain stage eight, the first individual time trial, and held it throughout the remaining 13 days of the 3,405km race. He finished 4:43 ahead of Sky’s Rigoberto Uran, with Cadel Evans of BMC taking third, 5:52 behind. Early favourite Bradley Wiggins failed to impress, and after several crashes in previous stages abandoned the race before the start of stage 13, citing a chest infection.
The weather played a significant role in the race with rain, hail and snow not only bringing freezing temperatures to several stages, but making affected descents treacherous and actually forcing the cancellation of stage 19.
Notable Australian performances apart from Evans’ stoic third place included the stage seven win to Adam Hansen racing for Lotto-Belisol, and strong performances from Jack Bobridge and Cameron Wurf in stage six, the pair breaking away early in stage six to lead most of the day. Evans finished the race third, Adam Hansen 72nd , Rory Sutherland 97th , Brett Lancaster 121st , Cameron Wurf 128th , Luke Durbridge 142nd , while Jack Bobridge, Leigh Howard, Matt Goss and Nathan Haas did not finish.
