Giro d’Italia 2022 Stage 14 LIVE - GC battle intensifies on first of two tough days in the mountains

Follow updates here from Stage 14 Ad/> Stage 13 recap Giro d'ItaliaDemare hat-trick as Cavendish and breakaway cruelly denied on Stage 1316 HOURS AGO A nail-biting finish to the short but eventful 150km Stage 13 from Sanremo to Cuneo saw a four-man break agonisingly swept up in the final kilometre as Frenchman Arnaud Demare (Groupama-FDJ) showed his class and confidence with a third win in this Giro d’Italia. Frenchman Nicolas Prodhomme (Ag2R-Citroen), Dutchmen Julius van den Berg (EF Education-EasyPost) and Pascal Eenkhoorn (Jumbo-Visma), and the Italian Mirco Maestri (Eolo-Kometa) held a maximum lead of over six minutes after the day’s only categorised climb, the Colle di Nava, before the teams of the sprinters combined to crush their dreams after an enthralling game of cat-and-mouse for the last two hours of racing.

With only 20km remaining and the gap still well over two minutes, the odds looked stacked in favour of the escapees. But once Mark Cavendish’s Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl team and the Israel-Premier Tech outfit of Italy’s Giacomo Nizzolo joined forces with Groupama-FDJ, the advantage was whittled down as the collective shoulders of the leading quartet started to slump.

Fresh impetus came from the DSM team of Stage 11 winner Alberto Dainese, whose leader and GC prospect Romain Bardet earlier abandoned after suffering a prolonged bout of sickness since Thursday’s stage to Genova. Bardet was in fourth, just 14 seconds off pink jersey Juan Pedro Lopez (Trek-Segafredo) prior to Friday's stage.

It was touch-and-go right to the finish with the quartet still holding 25 seconds over the pack with two kilometres remaining. But a slight 2% rise to the home straight sounded the death-knell for the leaders – and despite a