The 167 kilometer long thirteenth stage of Giro d’Italia brought the peloton from Spilimbergo to the impressive and quite demanding climb to Grossglockner in Austria where Saxo Bank-SunGard’s Alberto Contador demonstrated convincing power as he launched away from his biggest opponents with Jose Rujano (Androni Giocattoli) on his wheel.

A group consisting of among others former leader of the race, Pieter Weening (Rabobank) was in front of the main field for a longer period of time and forming the very head of the race, Roberto Kiserlovski (Astana) acted out as the ornament of the hood.

But as the rainy and cold Grossglockner ascent started, the eagerness and strength within the front soldiers slowly vanished and the group favorites gaining in from behind was growing slimmer by the second. As the front group was inhaled, several of the biggest opponents attempted to drop the Saxo Bank-SunGard captain but only in vain. Soon, Alberto Contador punched away and dropped everyone but Jose Rujano (Androni Giocattoli) who followed him just like the Etna stage.

From then on, the two stayed together to the top of the climb where Jose Rujano (Androni Giocattoli) passed the finish line in first position and Saxo Bank-SunGards Alberto Contador increased his lead in the overall classification where he’s 3.09 minutes ahead of second place holder, Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas).

“What a master piece. We were in control throughout the whole stage and according to the original plan, Alberto only had to keep up with his opponents but as they showed weaknesses I asked him to launch two attacks without going to deep and in the second punch, only Rujano was able to compete and we’re very content with that. The lead to Nibali is increased significantly and we got more from the stage than we had expected beforehand. That doesn’t mean that the race is won. There are several high mountain stages to come and we all know how you can lose minutes on a bad day in the mountains so we need to stay focused on the job”, said an enthusiastic Saxo Bank-SunGard team owner, Bjarne Riis.