Alberto Bettiol gave the Giro d\u2019Italia a blast from the past with victory Friday in stage 13 as the pack is already looking at the monster climbs looming on the horizon high in the Italian Alps this weekend.<\/p>\n
Friday served up a textbook old-school transition stage, and XDS-Astana\u2019s Bettiol delivered a master class by attacking late on the final climb to deny Norwegian champion Andreas Leknessund before diving solo into Verbania.<\/p>\n
In his first win since 2024, the 32-year-old dispatched Leknessund, with Jasper Stuyven kicking to third in the sprint for the reduced chase group.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo win like this is something I\u2019ll bring with me forever,\u201d said Bettiol, whose girlfriend lives in the area. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter if I win only every two years. If I have to wait for two years for a win like this one, I\u2019m fine with it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m happy to finally win for XDS Astana because Alexander Vinokurov believed in me two years ago. He really wanted me in the team. My teammates have done an amazing job since the start of the Giro. I\u2019m happy to be part of this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jonas Vingegaard and the other GC contenders were firmly in siesta<\/em> mode more than 13 minutes back across the rolling roads of northern Italy.<\/p>\n There were no major shakeups in the top 10. Afonso Eul\u00e1lio carries the maglia rosa<\/em> into Saturday\u2019s tappone<\/em> high in the Alps.<\/p>\n Whether he has it again at day\u2019s end remains to be seen.<\/p>\n The former Tour of Flanders winner won the first battle of the day to ride into a 15-man move that finally pulled clear. Among the escapees was American pro Larry Warbasse (Tudor Pro Cycling).<\/p>\n With no GC implications and the sprint teams letting this one ride away, the peloton seemed content to let the breakaway have this one.<\/p>\n The finale came alive on the final ascent with a flurry of attacks. Leknessund punched over the top and briefly looked headed for victory.<\/p>\n But Bettiol, who said he\u2019s trained on the local roads, had the answer, and bridged across to the Norwegian, attacked again near the summit, and posted a fearless descent into Verbania.<\/p>\n The Italian was emotional when recounting how much the victory meant to him.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t win much but I\u2019ve won the most beautiful race in the world, the Tour of Flanders, I\u2019ve won the oldest race in the world, Milano-Torino, I\u2019ve won two stages in the most beautiful stage race, the Giro d\u2019Italia, I\u2019ve won the national championship in my hometown,\u201d Bettiol said. \u201cThere are riders who have won billions of races but not a single monument.<\/p>\n \u201cMoreover, I\u2019ve won in life because I got the support of my family since I took up cycling and I\u2019ve met incredible people in the cycling community. I\u2019ve dedicated my victory to a former coach of mine who passed away recently. Luckily, I managed to speak with him before the Giro. I wanted to win today because of all the people who wanted to see me winning here in Verbania, the home of my girlfriend\u2019s family.\u201d<\/p>\n Eul\u00e1lio, who\u2019s held pink since stage 5, knows things will likely change tomorrow.<\/p>\n \u201cToday it was a perfect day for the breakaway. Many riders wanted to make it. My team did a perfect job. One more day for me in the \u2018maglia rosa\u2019 and I just need to say thank you to all my teammates,\u201d he said. \u201cTomorrow, I will enjoy the day as much as I can. I will suffer and I will enjoy until the final climb. There, we\u2019ll see what I can do. It\u2019s already been incredible an incredible adventure for me\u201d.<\/p>\n The Giro d\u2019Italia plunges into the Italian Alps on Saturday for stage 14 with its first true five-star mountain stage.<\/p>\n A savage 133km route packing 4,350 meters of climbing is expected to reshuffle the general classification and set up the final week of racing still to come.<\/p>\n All eyes turn to Vingegaard.<\/p>\n After surviving crashes, illness, sprint chaos, and the stage 10 time trial, the Dane enters the decisive weekend poised to seize the maglia rosa<\/em>.<\/p>\n He\u2019s still 33 seconds behind Eul\u00e1lio, but he\u2019s ahead of everyone else.<\/p>\n With five rated climbs, including the Cat. 1 grinder to the summit, no one among the top 10 can afford to have a bad day.<\/p>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/giro-ditalia\/giro-ditalia-stage-13-results-report\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Bettiol-stage-13-Giro-2026.jpg”] Andrew Hood Updated May 22, 2026 02:06PM Alberto Bettiol gave the Giro d\u2019Italia a blast from the past with victory Friday in stage 13 as the pack is already looking at the monster climbs looming on the horizon high in the Italian Alps this weekend. Friday served up a textbook old-school transition […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-1950884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1950884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1950884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1950884\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1950884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1950884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1950884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}How it happened<\/h2>\n
Giro gets real in Italian Alps<\/h2>\n
![\"Giro](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/stage-14-giro-2026.jpeg-720x411.png?width=1920&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
<\/figure>\nGiro d\u2019Italia stage 13 results<\/h2>\n\n<\/div>\n