Gaviria wins his fourth stage before the peloton hits the Brutal mountain stages

Quick-Step Floor's Fernando Gaviria takes his fourth stage Sprint at the 2017 Giro d'Italia

Today's stage was a dead pan flat sprinters stage where the roads were wide and straight from the start to the finish. The route ran across Parma, Fidenza, Piacenza and Voghera. Final bunch sprint into the city of Tortona.

Team Sky rider wisely decides to withdraw ahead of the BRUTAL final 10 days in the mountains on Giro d'Italia

Thomas and others were wiped out by a police motorbike on stage 9 on the lower slopes of the climb of BlockHaus. Thomas sustained a dislocated shoulder, cuts and bruises to his knee, shoulders and arms in the serious crash which ultimately saw Thomas lose over 2 minutes to his GC rivals after getting back on and continuing the fight for pink.

From the guns attacks came until the day's breakaway of four riders was established containing Pavel Brutt (Gazprom - Rusvelo), Matej Mohoric (UAE Team Emirates), Vincenzo Albanese (Bardiani CSF) and Johann Van Zyl (Dimension Data).

Johann Van Zyl (Dimension Data) decided to drop out and rolled back into the peloton.

The peloton didn't want the break getting to far away, making sure it came down to a bunch sprint. The break away's maximum lead was just over 2 minutes.

With 22kms to go the three leaders were reeled in and a slight crosswind shelled some riders of the back of the peloton.

The sprinters trains fought to stay at the front, especially with the final tight turns.

In the final sprint Gaviria came round his rivals, Ewan slightly boxed in made no difference as Gaviria was by far the fastest. It's the 22 year's old maiden debut at the Giro. To win four stages is very impressive.

Tomorrow's stage marks the final 9 day's of the Giro d'Italia and is brutal.

It is expected that a lot of Sprinters will climb off after today's stage as it's the final flat stage as we enter the high mountains, somke brutal stages await.

Stage 14, Saturday May 20 2017, Castellania to Oropa, 131 km is a short and very intense stage, featuring the initial perfectly flat 120 km, runs across the Po Plain and reaches Biella, where the steep climb heads to the finish. Oropa is the Montagna Pantani, in memory of his victory in 1999. The final climb measures 11.8 km in length at an average gradient over 7%, topping 13% half way through the ascent.

It could see another shake up in the overall classification

2017 Giro d'Italia Stage 13 Top 10

1 Fernando Gaviria (Col) Quick-Step Floors 3:47:45 
2 Sam Bennett (Irl) Bora-Hansgrohe   
3 Jasper Stuyven (Bel) Trek-Segafredo   
4 Roberto Ferrari (Ita) UAE Team Emirates   
5 Ryan Gibbons (RSA) Dimension Data   
6 Rüdiger Selig (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe   
7 Sacha Modolo (Ita) UAE Team Emirates   
8 Caleb Ewan (Aus) Orica-Scott   
9 André Greipel (Ger) Lotto Soudal   
10 Viacheslav Kuznetsov (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin

2017 Giro d'Italia general classification after Stage 13

1 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Sunweb 56:28:53 
2 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team 0:02:23 
3 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek-Segafredo 0:02:38 
4 Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ 0:02:40 
5 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Bahrain-Merida 0:02:47 
6 Andrey Amador (CRc) Movistar Team 0:03:05 
7 Bob Jungels (Lux) Quick-Step Floors 0:03:56 
8 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale 0:03:59 
9 Tanel Kangert (Est) Astana Pro Team   
10 Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin 0:04:17

2017 Giro d'Italia Stage 13 Highlights

2017 Giro d'Italia Stage 13 Final Sprint

#GIRO100 VIDEO: Fernando Gaviria takes his 4th stage sprint. Watch here https://t.co/sZUpaAvODR pic.twitter.com/n0e8MklOwo

— GranFondoGuide (@GranFondoGuide) May 19, 2017