While there is one Spaniard leading and dominating the Giro d’Italia, there are two others who are steadily progressing and have high hopes of finishing the race on the podium. David Arroyo (Movistar) finished in second place last year after surprisingly leading the race for several days. He currently sits in 4th place overall, 3’25” behind leader Alberto Contador, who once again attacked his adversaries during stage 13 to further extend his lead in the competition.
Almost admitting defeat, Arroyo insists the race is much harder this year and beating the three-time Tour de France champion and former Giro winner will be an uphill battle, literally.
“It’s almost impossible,” he said on as.com while pondering on how to beat Contador. “Saying you can do harm to Alberto are bold words. Attacking him is complicated and will take time.”
The Movistar team leader is looking forward to the days ahead, especially Tuesday's 12.7km mountain Time Trial. It comes the day after a rest day, which is always tricky for the riders, but Arroyo is quietly confident since doing very well on similar terrain last year.
Another man returning to form after crashing out of last years Vuelta a Espana is Igor Anton. The Euskaltel-Euskadi rider moved up the rankings on yesterday’s tough stage in Austria that saw the race summit Grossglockner. His team did the bulk of work to bring back the days escapees, and Anton now finds himself in 7th place, 4’02” behind Contador.
Sounding less jovial than Arroyo, Anton explained, “I will take it day by day. At the moment I am feeling good and spent the difficult days with the best riders.”
The Grand Tour stage winner hopes to win a mountain stage at the very least, but knows victory won’t come easy. “I will be thrilled to conquer a stage because I benefit from the high mountains. However, with rivals such as Contador, Nibali, Scarponi and Kreuziger, victory will come at an expense.”
Many of the top sprinters have left the race because of the unforgiving profile which remains. It’s something for the mountain goats to relish.
The race organisation has announced a revised route to stage 14 today. The Crostis Climb has been cut from the profile the organizers said due to "the impossibility to ensure an optimal sports management at the end of the stage." Follow cars would not be allowed for the finish, and team managers were reluctant to rely on the race neutral support, which would also require putting their mechanics on motorcycles. The other main reason to change the route was for safety concerns, with the harrowing descents on the way down Crostis to Zoncolan. While the changes will make the stage some 24 kilometers shorter, but in no way will mean the stage is easy. The peloton will still have to negotiate 186km journey which will end on Monte Zoncolan. With the way mountain top finishes have gone so far, contenders will be hoping that Alberto Contador is in a more forgiving mood today.