In a dream finish in Mottolino, Colombian Nairo Quintana (Movistar Team) shone and finished second in the queen stage of the Giro d’Italia 2024, disputed between Manerba del Garda and Livigno with a distance of 222 kilometers.
The boyacense brought out his natural born climber skills in the final part to release all his breakaway companions and to excite all Colombia in the Lombardy Region, but with less than two kilometers to go the leader Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) overtook him and left him second.
The first to cross the finish line was Slovenian Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates), who came in 29 seconds ahead of Beetle. Third came German Georg Steinhauser (EF Education – EasyPost).
Nairo was in the large breakaway of 60 riders who rode almost all day, was the last to be caught by the “alien”, with 1. 00 meters left to conquer a deserved victory (if the sport would talk about this), especially for everything that has happened with the Colombian rider in this and last season.
However, despite not winning, Quintana showed that he still has some of the conditions that made him shine in the past and that his quality is still present. His performance helped him to be second in the fraction, climb to 22nd place overall, and be third in the mountains classification. Now let’s talk about Tadej.
It would be unfair not to highlight the performance of Daniel Felipe Martinez (BORA – hansgrohe) who tried to get away from Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers), and finally crossed fifth in the difficult day. Also what was done by Einer Augusto Rubio, (Movistar Team), who yesterday did his best in a time trial that does not suit his conditions, today in the mountains, attacked, moved away from the main group and arrived in the seventh place, thus recovering his top10, now eighth overall.
“Today was one of the best days of my career. It was a very nice stage, with a good course and very good climbs. We had this stage in mind since December. I’m very happy to have kept it under control. The breakaway was very strong. We had to be smart because of the tailwind. I’m very happy to win the queen stage of the Giro in Livigno, one of my favorite places in Italy. I opened a gap after Rafal Majka finished his lap. I continued solo… When I saw Quintana and Froome I was always angry that he didn’t attack from far away, but today he did. But today he did a super good job and also Georg Steinhauser, there are a few riders who deserve a mention today,” said Pogacar, wearer of the pink leader’s jersey.
This Monday we will have the second rest day of the Corsa Rosa. The 107th edition of the Giro d’Italia returns on Tuesday with another 206-kilometer mountainous stage between Livigno and Santa Cristina Valgardena (Monte Pana). The successor to Slovenian Primoz Roglic, last year’s champion, will be known on Sunday, May 26 in Rome.
Giro d’Italia 2024 (2.UWT)
Results Stage 15 | Manerba del Garda – Livigno (Mottolino) (222 km)
| 1 | Tadej Pogačar | UAE Team Emirates | 6:11:41 |
| 2 | Nairo Quintana | Movistar Team | 0:29 |
| 3 | Georg Steinhauser | EF Education – EasyPost | 2:32 |
| 4 | Romain Bardet | Team dsm-firmenich PostNL | 2:48 |
| 5 | Daniel Felipe Martínez | BORA – hansgrohe | 2:51 |
| 6 | Geraint Thomas | INEOS Grenadiers | ,, |
| 7 | Einer Rubio | Movistar Team | 2:59 |
| 8 | Ben O’Connor | Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team | ,, |
| 9 | Thymen Arensman | INEOS Grenadiers | 3:08 |
| 10 | Jan Hirt | Soudal Quick-Step | 3:21 |
Clasificación General Individual
| 1 | Tadej Pogačar | UAE Team Emirates | 56:11:46 |
| 2 | Geraint Thomas | INEOS Grenadiers | 6:41 |
| 3 | Daniel Felipe Martínez | BORA – hansgrohe | 6:56 |
| 4 | Ben O’Connor | Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team | 7:43 |
| 5 | Antonio Tiberi | Bahrain – Victorious | 9:26 |
| 6 | Thymen Arensman | INEOS Grenadiers | 9:45 |
| 7 | Romain Bardet | Team dsm-firmenich PostNL | 10:49 |
| 8 | Filippo Zana | Team Jayco AlUla | 11:11 |
| 9 | Einer Rubio | Movistar Team | 12:13 |
| 10 | Jan Hirt | Soudal Quick-Step | 13:11 |