Philip Deignan was in the thick of the action for the third time in five days on this Giro, going clear in an 11 man move on the road to Rif. Panarotta today
By Gerard Cromwell
Ireland’s Philip Deignan came agonisingly close to a stage win at the Giro d’Italia again today; the Letterkenny man putting in a fantastic performance to finish third on the steep summit finish at Rif Panarotta at the end of stage 18.
Deignan and his Sky teammate Dario Cataldo were part of an 11-man group that went clear early in the 171km stage and built a maximum lead of over eight minutes on the peloton.
Unfortunately for Deignan, some of the best climbers in the race were also in the move, including king of the mountains leader Julian Arredondo of Trek, Team Colombia’s Fabio Duarte and former Giro winner Ivan Basso of Cannondale.
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Upon hitting the final 16km climb to the finish however it was Dutch strongman Thomas De Gendt of Omega Pharma Quickstep who made the first move, soloing clear to a 20 second lead in the first kilometre of the ascent.
Martijn Keizer of Belkin tried to go across to De Gendt about 2km later but was closed down by a group containing Deignan, Cataldo, Duarte and Arredondo with 12km to go.
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Duarte was dropped on the steep 14 per cent section with 9km to go, but as Deignan drove the pace on for teammate Cataldo, mountains leader Arredondo had a free ride at the back of the three-man group.
There were numerous attacks from the group before Duarte made his way back up with 5km to go and was first to react when Arredondo jumped a few metres later.
A gutsy Deignan clawed his way up to the duo but had no answer to another attack from the Colombians in the last 4km.
As Arredondo rode away from Duarte in the final kilometres, Deignan managed to hold off the rest of the group to take third on the stage, his best result of the season thus far.
After two broken collarbones since the end of last season, Deignan went into this Giro with little expectation but said in his daily Giro diary on stickybottle that he wanted to try and do something in the last week of the race if possible.
The Donegal man has been true to his word and has been involved in three escape attempts since last Sunday, getting caught with 3km to go while clear on the final climb to Montecampione on Sunday and finishing 16th from a 26-man move yesterday.
As usual you can get the lowdown on Deignan’s third place ride today in his Giro Diary tomorrow.
Deignan leading the escape today.
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