With a formidable team performance, Astana dominated the Giro d'Italia and left the race with lots of success.
Fabio Aru won the Best Young Rider classification and finished second overall on General Classification. Mikel Landa finished third overall on General Classification and won stages 15 and 16.
Paolo Tiraongo finished 19th overall on General Classification at 37 and won stage nine in San Giorgio del Sanno. All nine riders finished the race, and won Best Team Classification with six in the Top-25.
Aru won stages 19 and 20 in the high mountains of Italy - on the dirt roads of Sestriere, on the steady grade to Valle d'Aosta.
However, the team also faced criticism for the tactical choices when they asked Landa to wait for Aru in stage 20.
“We tried to blow the race apart," sport director Aleksandr Shefer told La Gazzetta dello Sport. “Landa made a great attack on the Colle delle Finestre, and if we stopped him on the climb to Sestriere it was because Aru was higher on GC and had a bigger possibility of worrying Contador. He complied and he showed great loyalty, in contrast to what everyone was thinking.”
“I’m used to being criticised,” Astana’s head directeur sportif Martinelli told Gazzetta. “But we have two riders on the podium behind a man called Contador and not ‘Rataplan’ [a dog from the Lucky Luke cartoon – ed.]
“I’m still hearing people say that we used up too much energy in the first week, but do you realise how many rivals we eliminated? And I’m not just talking about Porte and Urán. Take Kruijswijk, who is 7th on GC, and look at how much he lost on the stage to La Spezia and do the math.”
Georgia CATTERICK 27 years | today |
Holger SIEVERS 56 years | today |
Edward WALSH 28 years | today |
Miriam ROMEI 29 years | today |
Tom DERNIES 34 years | today |
© CyclingQuotes.com