Frenchman Arnaud Demare won a mass sprint for the line on stage 13 of the Giro d’Italia on Friday after the peloton caught an escape group just ahead of the home straight.
Demare beat Phil Bauhaus and Mark Cavendish to the line while Spaniard Juan Pedro Lopez held on to the leader’s pink jersey for a 10th stage.
On a short 150km run, only half the distance of the Milan-San Remo one-day classic, four riders opened a six-minute gap they only let slip in the final kilometre, setting up the sprint.
This was Demare’s third stage win on this year’s Giro and it extends his lead in the sprint points race. “It was a monstrous lead-out,” said the winner.
“They really resisted at the front,” he said. After showing strong form at the Giro, French climber Romain Bardet pulled out on Friday complaining of feeling sick.—APP
