Alberto Contador enhanced his advantage on stage 12 of the Giro d'Italia on Thursday as Philippe Gilbert won in Vicenza.
Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) finished the 190-kilometre route from Imola three seconds behind Gilbert (BMC Racing) to stretch his overall advantage to 17 seconds over second-placed Fabio Aru (Astana).
"It was another very hard day," Contador said. "We rode the first two hours at about 50kph, then the rain started.
"The peloton broke apart with the high speeds, but I had good legs.
"Philippe Gilbert was very strong on the final climb, but I was thinking of the general classification and I'm very happy with the outcome today."
Gilbert said: "The finish was very hard, and the weather was horrible - not cold, but wet - but the final 400m went perfectly. It's a great feeling."
Source: PA-WIRE
