Contador loses Giro lead to Aru after crash

ByReuters

Published 22/05/2015 at 15:37 GMT

Alberto Contador lost the Giro d'Italia overall leader's pink jersey to Italian Fabio Aru after being involved a crash in the finale of the 13th stage on Friday.

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Image credit: Eurosport

The Spaniard, looking to become the first rider to win the Giro and the Tour de France in the same year since 1998, lost 40 seconds to stage winner Sacha Modolo of Italy.

Giacomo Nizzolo took second place ahead of fellow Italian Elia Viviani.

Astana's Aru, who finished four seconds behind Modolo, took the pink jersey and leads Contador by 19 seconds ahead of Saturday's 59.4-km individual time trial.

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Contador, who did not appear to be injured, finished the 147-km stage on one of his Tinkoff-Saxo team mate's bikes after he and others were involved in a crash with just over three kilometres left.

He is expected to reclaim the overall lead on Saturday as he usually fares much better than Aru in the solo effort against the clock.

Australian Richie Porte, hit by a two-minute penalty on Tuesday, also took a tumble on a wet road and lost over two minutes as his Giro chances took another massive hit.

The Team Sky leader now lags over five minutes off the pace.

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