COMO, Italy – Astana rider Dario Cataldo has won the 15th stage of the Giro d’Italia on a nightmare day for race favorite Primoz Roglic.
The Italian finished the 144-mile route from Ivrea to Como in 5 hours, 48 minutes, 15 seconds on Sunday. Mattia Cattaneo was second with the same time, and Simon Yates was 11 seconds behind in third.
Movistar rider Richard Carapaz of Ecuador increased his overall lead from seven to 47 seconds over Roglic, who had to borrow a teammate’s bike during the race. The Slovenian then crashed near the end, hitting a barrier on a turn during the descent of the Civiglio, and crossed the line with cuts on his face around 50 seconds behind Cataldo.
Durango’s Sepp Kuss finished in 39th-place with a time of 5:59.35, and was 11:20 off of the leader. Kuss was the second-highest American finisher after Lloyd Joseph Dombrowski finished in 22nd with a time of 5:50.22.
Another race favorite, Vincenzo Nibali, is third overall, 1:47 behind, after finishing sixth.
Sunday’s stage was mainly flat for the first 99 miles but had three categorized climbs in the final part of the stage.
Cataldo and Cattaneo had a two-man breakaway.
“I just followed Cattaneo’s attack,” Cataldo said. “Then I was confident in myself. To win a stage at the Giro d’Italia is amazing. It’s something I’ve been dreaming of all my life.”
The end of the stage followed many of the same roads used in the Giro di Lombardia single-day classic.
The three-week race ends in Verona on June 2. Monday is a rest day.
