Philip Deignan looked back to his best today, attacking the group of main favourites on the summit finish at the Giro d'Italia (Photo: Sirotti)
Ireland’s Philip Deignan took 14th place on stage 14 of the Giro d’Italia today, after an aggressive ride saw him spend much of the final climb out front alone.
Deignan attacked the front group of favourites with 10km to go, soloing clear on the climb to open a 13 second gap with 8km remaining.
With Mick Rogers of Tinkoff-Saxo leading the chase group, which also contained race leader Rigoberto Uran (Omega Pharma Quickstep) and all of the overall contenders, Deignan had a maximum lead of 37 seconds at one point but soon the attacks came from behind.
Pierre Rolland (Europcar) jumped clear of the favourites with 4km to go and powered his way up to the Donegal man a kilometre later.
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Deignan held on though, and the duo looked set to contest the stage victory until race leader Uran decided to try and get rid of some of his rivals in the chase group and jumped clear with Colombian compatriot Fabio Duarte.
The move sparked a chain reaction of attacks in the group behind and Deignan and Rolland were closed down in the last 2km of the stage where Fabio Aru of Astana eventually went clear and soloed to victory.
Deignan finished at the tail end of a six man chase group that included former race leader Cadel Evans (BMC) and former Giro winner Ryder Hesjedal of Gamrin Sharp.
Deignan’s ride today shows a return to the kind of from that earned him a stage win at the Vuelta a Espana in 2009 and if he can recover on tomorrow’s rest day, augers well for his chances of having another go next week.
You’ll be able to read Deignan’s reactions to today’s stage in his daily Giro d’Italia diary on stickybottle tomorrow.
Fabio Aru of Astana takes a clear victory on stage 14 at the Giro today.
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