Arnaud Démare (Groupama-FDJ) has taken his third stage win the Giro d'Italia, beating Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain-Victorious) and Mark Cavendish (QuickStep-Alpha Vinyl) to the line at the end of stage 13.
Once again Démare's team put in a sterling effort in the finale of the 150km stage from Sanremo to Cuneo after they helped to bring back the day's main breakaway, with four of them putting in a very strong fight to remain clear.
Mirco Maestri (Eolo-Kometa), Julius van den Berg (EF Education-EasyPost), Nicolas Prodhomme (AG2R Citroën), and Pascal Eenkhoorn (Jumbo-Visma) held of the bunch deep into the final kilometre until Demare's lead-out train, in full flight, brought them back.
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However, it was very close in the end with Maestri persisting alone out front and hanging on until 300m to go, allowed to be swallowed up and Demare in gallop in for another big win.
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There was no change in the overall as all the main favourites were in the peloton. Juan Pedro López (Trek-Segafredo) still leads overall, by 12 seconds from Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) and João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates), who are both on the same time.
The big news of the day was the departure of Romain Bardet from the race. The Team DSM French rider started the stage 4th overall at 14 seconds but has been forced out due to a bout of illness; climbing off the bike and getting into a team car early on today's stage.
