Sutherland prepared to give all for Quintana’s Giro quest

After more than a week in the maglia rosa, Dutchman Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) finally cracked at the 100th Giro d’Italia as heavy pre-race favourite Nairo Quintana (Movistar) finally took back the pink leaders jersey he won in 2014.

On day won by three-time race stage winner Mikel Landa (Team Sky), Quintana garnered most of the headlines, thanks in large part to the efforts of his Movistar teammates, who have doggedly dedicated their bodies to helping the diminutive Colombian climber regain his Giro crown.

One such rider, Australian Rory Sutherland told cycling journalist and author Rupert Guinness prior to the penultimate stage the mission is clear.

“On these kinds of stages, there’s two or three races going on at the same time because you have a lot of riders who’ve lost a lot of time and don’t have a leader on the team, so this is a big opportunity to get in a breakaway and win a stage at the Giro d’Italia,” explained Sutherland. “Then there’s the GC battle going on as well, and the teams like ours, Movistar, we have a GC guy and someone who we believe can win the race overall.

“So that’ what we concentrate on, so if a guy is 20 minutes down or an hour down on the GC it doesn’t matter to us.

“It’s pretty easy to figure out my job now…,” he continued. “My job then is to normally is to make sure that we put Nairo in a good position and to set a pace at the bottom of the climb in the first few kilometres to make it hard for the guys feeling the pinch.

“[Stage 19] will definitely be the final showdown before the time trial, which of course is incredibly important,” Sutherland concluded. “At the end of this stage everyone will have a good idea on who is going to win.”

1. Mikel Landa, ESP, Team Sky, 4:53:00

2. Rui Costa, POR, UAE Team Emirates, +1:49

3. Pierre Rolland, FRA, Cannondale-Drapac +1:54

15. Adam Yates, GBR, Orica-Scott, +8:21

1 (2). Nairo Quintana, COL, Movistar, 85:02:40

2 (1). Tom Dumoulin, NED, Sunweb, +0:38

3 (3). Vincenzo Nibali, +0:43

4 (4). Thibaut Pinot FRA, FDJ, +0:53

8 (9). Adam Yates, GBR, Orica-Scott, +6:35

96 (98). Adam Hansen, AUS, Lotto Soudal, +3:17:41

119 (120). Rory Sutherland, AUS, Movistar, +3:44:13

126 (123). Michael Hepburn, AUS, Orica-Scott, +3:47:32

DNS — Alex Edmondson, AUS, Orica-Scott (Stage 16)

DNF — Caleb Ewan, AUS, Orica-Scott (Stage 15)

DNF — Nathan Haas, AUS, Dimension Data (Stage 11)

DNF — Rohan Dennis, AUS, BMC Racing (Stage 4)

For full results click here.