Bad luck for Astana's Lopez on 1st summit finish in Giro d'Italia Stage 13

NUR-SULTAN. KAZINFORM - Because of a mechanical problem at the final part of the last climb to Lago Serrù in Ceresole Reale (with 12 km to go), Astana's Miguel Angel Lopez was forced to stop to change the bike, losing around 40-50 seconds. Supported by Ion Izagirre, he tried his best to come back in the GC contenders group, with 3 km to go he was almost there, but, finally, he lost around of 1 minute 20 seconds to the riders like Primož Roglič and Vincenzo Nibali, Kazinform has learnt from the club's press service.

"Everything went good during this day. The team worked perfectly, we had a good control on the race and in the final I felt good, staying in the same group with all the main contenders, like Nibali, Majka and Roglič. But, in a moment I've got a mechanical, I did not understand well, what happened, but I had to stop. Our car was far behind and it took time to get a new bike. I really tried to come back, I did my best, but in the end of the day it just did not work. Of course, I am disappointed, but tomorrow is another day and another challenge. All we can do - just to try to do our best day by day," said Miguel Angel Lopez.

"Sometimes, it happens. It was a bad luck for Miguel Angel and for all our team, since we worked hard today to play our cards. We sent three riders in a break and we still had all other teammates around Miguel Angel in the most important moments of the stage. Indeed, the team was strong and our leader was in a perfect position on the climb. But, a mechanical problem with 12 km to go ruined everything. At the finish he lost a lot of time, and now we have to think about the new situation and to invent a new way to ride this race. For sure, we won't give up. We will do it day by day, stage by stage and let's see, what we will have in the end," said Alexandr Shefer, sports director of Astana Pro Team.

The Russian Ilnur Zakarin, one of the GC contenders, took stage 13 victory after the whole day in the breakaway. There was a big battle among the GC favorites on the final 34-km-long climb to Lago Serrù and, in the end of the day, the overall standings has got some important changes. However, the current pink jersey Jan Polanc was able to defend his overall lead with an advantage of 2 minutes 25 seconds to Primož Roglič and 2.56 to Ilnur Zakarin. After this bad day, Astana's leader Miguel Angel Lopez moved to 10th place, 7.48 behind the pink jersey.

Another super hard day is waiting for us tomorrow: it will be a short 131-km-long distance from Saint Vincent to Courmayer with 5 categorized climbs.