Giro d'Italia: Alberto Contador retains lead as Diego Ulissi wins
Spaniard withstands pain from shoulder dislocation on 264km day
Tuesday 19 May 2015 13:47, UK
Alberto Contador withstood the pain from his injured shoulder to safely complete the 264km seventh stage of the Giro d’Italia and retain his overall lead.
The Tinkoff-Saxo rider only decided to remain in the race early on Friday morning after dislocating his left shoulder in a crash on Thursday’s six stage and rode with the injury heavily strapped.
Stage seven was the longest day at the Giro since 1984 and took 7hr 22min to complete, but Contador managed to cross the line in the peloton to stay two seconds ahead of second-placed Fabio Aru (Astana) at the top of the general classification and 20 seconds in front of third-placed Richie Porte (Team Sky).
The stage was won by Diego Ulissi (Lampre-Merida), who caused a surprise by beating Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEdge) into second place and Juan Jose Lobato (Movistar) into third in an uphill sprint to the finish in Fiuggi.
It was an emotional victory for the Italian, who won two stages of last year’s Giro but was later given a ban for using an inhaler containing the illegal substance Salbutamol at the race.
He said: "This morning, I woke up and said to myself, 'I have to have a go'. I went from a long way out because I was afraid of being blocked in, and I had good legs, thankfully, which helped me hold on to the finish line."
The gentle gradient to the finish ruled pure sprinters such as stage six winner Andre Greipel (Lotto Soudal) out of contention and placed the advantage in the hands of punchier sprinters.
Lampre-Merida and Orica-GreenEdge formed the strongest lead-out trains going into the final 500m and although Ulissi launched his burst for the line early, Gerrans was unable to regain parity and had to settle for second place.
The Giro continues on Saturday with a mountainous 186km eighth stage ending with the race's second of six summit finishes, on Campitello Maltese.
Stage seven result
1 Diego Ulissi (Ita) Lampre-Merida, 7:22:21
2 Juan Jose Lobato (Esp) Movistar, same time
3 Simon Gerrans (Aus) Orica-GreenEdge, st
4 Manuel Belletti (Ita) Southeast, st
5 Enrico Battaglin (Ita) Bardiani-CSF, st
6 Sonny Colbrelli (Ita) Bardiani-CSF, st
7 Fabio Felline (Ita) Trek Factory Racing, st
8 Grega Bole (Slo) CCC Sprandi Polkowice, st
9 Kevin Reza (Fra) FDJ.fr, st
10 Sergey Lagutin (Rus) Katusha, st
General classification
1 Alberto Contador (Esp) Tinkoff-Saxo, 27:48:00
2 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana, +2secs
3 Richie Porte (Aus) Team Sky, +20secs
4 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Tinkoff-Saxo, +22
5 Dario Cataldo (Ita) Astana, +28
6 Johan Esteban Chaves (Col) Orica-GreenEdge, +37
7 Giovanni Visconti (Ita) Movistar, +56
8 Mikel Landa (Esp) Astana, +1:01
9 Davide Formolo (Ita) Cannondale-Garmin, +1:15
10 Andrey Amador (Cos) Movistar, +1:18
