Bagno di Romagna: UAE Team Emirates’ Rui Costa clinched a podium with teammate Simone Petilli finishing inside the top 10 in the 11th stage of the 21-round Giro d’Italia on Wednesday.
Costa took second while Petilli got eighth in the 161-km hill stage from Firenze to Bagno di Romagna. Omar Fraile of Dimension Data came first, while Tom Dumoulin of Sunweb kept the pink jersey.
“It was important that we joined a breakaway today and I worked really hard to be able to achieve that,” said Costa, who won the UCI World Championship in 2013. “I tried my best to pursue the attack and win, however towards the end I was exhausted. I guess I’m a bit disappointed that I didn’t manage to win the stage especially after being so close. But it’s ok, the Giro is a long race and there are more stages to come that will surely provide similar opportunities. The most important thing for now is to remain focused and do our very best.”
This was UAE Team Emirates’ third podium and eighth top 10 stage finish of the 2017 Giro d’Italia so far, from that they have won stage win courtesy of Jan Polanc in stage four. They don’t currently have any riders in the general classification top 10, but Polanc currently leads the mountain classification and is fourth in the young riders classification ahead of Petilli in fifth and Valerio Conti in ninth.
Stage 12 runs 229-km from Forli to Reggio Emilia and is the longest of the Giro’s 21 stages.
