Giant-Shimano are mostly in the Giro d'Italia to contest the flat stages and so the team was left disappointed when the break stayed away in today's 13th stage. After taking part in the first part of the chase, the team chose to hold back in the finale to put their rival teams under pressure.

Luka Mezgec has sprinted to seventh place on the 13th stage of the Giro d’Italia today after three riders from an original six man move stayed away to the finish on what should have been a sprinter’s day.

Team Giant-Shimano chose not to overly contribute the chase in the latter stages, and with the other teams looking at each other the three leaders managed to maintain a slender lead to the line with Marco Canola (Bardiani) taking the win.

The stage got underway with just seven Team Giant-Shimano riders after Tobias Ludvigsson crashed out of the race in yesterday’s individual time trial. The peloton rolled out of Fossano with a relatively short 157 kilometres ahead and soon enough a small group of six riders was allowed to pull clear and start to build up an advantage.

Their gap grew, then fell and with 55km to go the difference was just over three and a half minutes. Everything looked under control for the peloton as the different sprinters teams shared the workload with Tom Stamsnijder once again pulling hard all day for Team Giant-Shimano.

Variable weather conditions in the final kilometre played a bit of havoc with the riders as the bunch was indicated to slow following a heavy hail storm, and as a result the gap to the six ahead grew again slightly. Into the final 15km the leaders split and three pulled clear, with still 1’30″ over the chasing peloton but there was no real organised chase and the pace yoyo’d, playing into the hands of those in front.

With four kilometres to the line, the gap was still over a minute and a frantic last ditch attempt to close the gap was not enough to see a regroupment with an 11 second difference on the line.

Mezgec fought hard in the 250m straight to the line in Rivarolo Canavese but was the fourth rider from the bunch over the line, leaving him seventh for the day.

“It was pretty steady and controlled today until the final lap," Mezgec said. "At this point the tempo dropped, with around 20km to go and things got a bit hectic. There was a lull where nobody wanted to take up the chase. We wanted to put a bit of pressure on the other teams and held back but nothing was organised.

“It was flat out in the final few kilometres but it was too late. Overall we worked well as a team, and stuck together during the stage and over the climb. You learn a lot from a day like today and we will come out stronger.

“We now have a few tough stages to get through before another couple of sprint opportunities next week.”