Due to the bad weather conditions, stage 13 got shortened in the morning, with the first three category 1 climbs taken out of the equation. However, despite the new distance of just 75 km, the stage to Crans Montana was still extremely hard.
"There was nothing else to do. If I don't ride, we would have been caught by the pink jersey group, and then you end up with nothing. They know that I'm generous, that I don't calculate my efforts. I hope adt least that they will thank me for being able to fight for the stage victory by the end. I knew I had to force destiny. There's a lot of disappointment because I wanted to win a stage, that was my objective of this Giro. I think it's the most difficult Giro I've done in my career. But that's the beauty of the Giro too.
The mountains are only getting started. So I want to have a go again. I'm in a hurry to be in the third week."
-Thibaut Pinot after his second place in Crans Montana.
"I knew that Pinot was coming very strong, and that Cepeda was also very good. I just had to leave them both, play my strategy a bit, and so I waited for the end. Surely in awhile I will be aware of what I have achieved; now he was coming full throttle and only with the thought of trying to win. I have achieved it, and I am going to enjoy this victory a lot."
-Einer Rubio
"Even when we got into the valley and had a good gap, I still didn't really believe that I could fight for the win. I was sure I would just blow up and come to a standstill on that last climb because it was so hard, but my sports director, Oscar, paced me through it really, really well.
I can't believe what I've done here. Coming into this Giro, I definitely wouldn't have expected this but I'm really happy with where my legs are. The whole team is flying and I just can't wait for the next couple of days!"
-Derek Gee rides to an impressive 4th place.
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