Fernando Gaviria sprinted without a saddle in finale of Giro d'Italia 2021 stage 13

The Colombian was the first of the fast men to open up his sprint before eventual winner Giacomo Nizzolo came around to win

Fernando Gaviria sprints without a saddle on stage 13 of Giro d'Italia 2021
(Image credit: RCS)
Tim Bonville-Ginn
By Tim Bonville-Ginn
published

Fernando Gaviria sprinted to the line on stage 13 of the Giro d'Italia 2021 without a saddle and still managed to achieve fifth on the day behind stage winner Giacomo Nizzolo.

Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates) came from a long way back to rejoin and sprint straight past his lead-out men in the final 250 metres, but without a saddle. Nizzolo (Qhubeka-Assos) jumped onto the Colombian's wheel to bridge to Edoardo Affini (Jumbo-Visma) who had attacked solo before taking the win.

But it is not yet known how Gaviria misplaced his perch. There was a bit of a reshuffling into the final two corners during the last kilometre that also saw Nizzolo's lead-out man Max Walscheid drop his chain, so perhaps it was there.

>>> Giacomo Nizzolo: My goal was to finish second, maybe that’s the trick to victory

Gaviria also suffered from a nose bleed with around 60km which was also a rather strange moment for him, but he managed to take back some points on Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) at the intermediate sprint before losing out the Slovakian rider in the sprint as Sagan finished third on the day, keeping his points jersey.

UAE Team Emirates' star sprinter has had a rough time the last couple of seasons having caught Covid-19 twice in 2020, bouncing back to win soon after both times but he has yet to take a win in 2021.

He looks to have the pace but various mishaps in the lead-out have meant that he has missed out on potential wins. Stage two of the Giro saw him taken out by his own team-mate, he went very early on stage seven to finish sixth and a poor lead into the final corner on stage 10 saw him come second behind Sagan.

We will update this story when we receive more information 

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Tim Bonville-Ginn
Tim Bonville-Ginn

Hi, I'm one of Cycling Weekly's content writers for the web team responsible for writing stories on racing, tech, updating evergreen pages as well as the weekly email newsletter. Proud Yorkshireman from the UK's answer to Flanders, Calderdale, go check out the cobbled climbs!


I started watching cycling back in 2010, before all the hype around London 2012 and Bradley Wiggins at the Tour de France. In fact, it was Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck's battle in the fog up the Tourmalet on stage 17 of the Tour de France.


It took me a few more years to get into the journalism side of things, but I had a good idea I wanted to get into cycling journalism by the end of year nine at school and started doing voluntary work soon after. This got me a chance to go to the London Six Days, Tour de Yorkshire and the Tour of Britain to name a few before eventually joining Eurosport's online team while I was at uni, where I studied journalism. Eurosport gave me the opportunity to work at the world championships in Harrogate back in the awful weather.


After various bar jobs, I managed to get my way into Cycling Weekly in late February of 2020 where I mostly write about racing and everything around that as it's what I specialise in but don't be surprised to see my name on other news stories.


When not writing stories for the site, I don't really switch off my cycling side as I watch every race that is televised as well as being a rider myself and a regular user of the game Pro Cycling Manager. Maybe too regular.


My bike is a well used Specialized Tarmac SL4 when out on my local roads back in West Yorkshire as well as in northern Hampshire with the hills and mountains being my preferred terrain.

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