Colombia’s Nairo Quintana lost the leaders jersey today following a disappointing time trial on stage 10 of the Giro d’Italia.
Tom Dumoulin of the Netherlands assumed the lead following a supreme victory on the 39.8km time-trial from Foligno to Montefalco, winning by 49 seconds ahead of Team Sky’s Geraint Thomas.
Quintana is notoriously weak at time trialling so Tuesday’s stage was about damage control and limiting his losses. On a largely flat course and with strong crosswinds, the Colombian was more than two minutes behind on the road and finished in 23rd place, 2min 53sec behind.
Dumoulin now leads Quintana by two minutes 23 seconds before Wednesday’s hilly 161km 11th stage from Florence to Bagno di Romagna. With four peaks and a long descent into the finish Quintana will feel confident that he can claw back some of the time he lost and perhaps regain the pink jersey.
“We’re all close together, anything can happen,” Quintana concluded. “But we’ll have to rethink our strategy to go for it in the mountains and get the maglia rosa back,” reported Cycling News.
Quintana is no stranger to wearing down large time gaps and his experience may give him the edge. In 2014 the Colombian fell ill and lost 2min 41sec to Rigoberto Uran in the 41 kilometre Barolo time trial, but he rallied in the mountains and ended up winning the race by 2min 58sec.
Quintana will be looking for a repeat of this in 2017, and it’s all to play for on Wednesday’s 11th stage.