Astana's Lopez 6th in Giro d'Italia Stage 14

NUR-SULTAN. KAZINFORM - After yesterday's bad luck, today the Astana leader Miguel Angel Lopez has spent a much better day, finishing 6th in Courmayeur after 5 categorized climbs and a distance of 131 km, Kazinform has learnt from the club's press service.

"Indeed, I've spent a good day. I was always in front with all the rivals. I tired to attack for several times, but it did not work. My legs worked good, but I hope for more in the next days. I can be satisfied with today's performance. We still have many tough days ahead. There is a very difficult day tomorrow, and also the whole third week. We will see," said Miguel Angel Lopez.

"I think, in the situation of today's stage we did all we could. It was nice to see Miguel Angel staying with the best riders, trying to attack. We saw he is still in a good form. Maybe, he did not have the best legs today, but we hope for more in the following stages. The Giro ends in Verona and we will do our maximum in this race. Many things still can happen here," added Alexandr Shefer, sports director of Astana Pro Team.

Stage 14 from Saint-Vincent to Courmayeur has exploded immediately after the start. After a number of attacks a group of 8 riders went away, later 4 riders, including Astana's Ion Izagirre joined them. On the slopes of the hardest climb of the day Colle San Carlo the break has been caught back, while the main group split in many parts: after a set of attacks 5 riders went away clear: Primož Roglič, Vincenzo Nibali, Richard Carapaz, Mikel Landa and Astana's leader Miguel Angel Lopez.

Closer to the top of the climb Carapaz made a decisive attack, which, finally, brought him not only the stage victory, but also the pink jersey of the new overall leader of the Giro d'Italia.

The Britton Simon Yates, who joined the leading group on the descent from Colle San Carlo, took the second place in this stage after a late attack. The Italian Vincenzo Nibali finished 3rd, while Miguel Angel Lopez did 6th.

In the general classification Richard Carapaz has a 7-second gap over Roglič and an advantage of 1.47 over Nibali. Astana's Lopez is still 10th, 5 minutes 30 seconds behind the GC leader.

Stage 15 will be held tomorrow: 232 km from Ivrea to Como with a famous hard final of the monumental classic race Il Lombardia.