Luka Mezgec sprinted to a 9th place at a soaking wet stage 13 in the Giro d’Italia, which took the peloton from Montecchio Maggiore to Jesolo. Sacha Modolo was the strongest sprinter today.

The completely flat course was an ideal opportunity for the sprinters to test their fast legs one more time before heading to Saturday’s long time trial and the upcoming mountain stages. Three riders formed the early break, which made it not very difficult for the sprinters teams to control the gap.

The bunch leveled out the breakaway as a large crash took place with 3500 meters to go, causing a lot of GC contenders to lose valuable time. The crash also took down Caleb Fairly, he continued the race without major injuries.

Sacha Modolo (Lampre – Merida) won the bunch sprint after a perfect lead-out from his team, Luka Mezgec finished at 9th.

Mezgec after the stage said: “It was a missed opportunity. I didn’t have a good position in the final kilometer and because of all the roundabouts I couldn’t move up.

“I feel good and my shape improves further during the Giro. Yesterday went very well as I survived the very selective climbs in the finale and could help Simon [Geschke] afterwards, I am very happy with that.”