In an important day for the Giro d'Italia's general classification race, Tom Dumoulin used a masterful counterattack to win Stage 14 on Saturday and assert his status as the favorite to capture the maglia rosa. Dumoulin's rival, Nairo Quintana, surprisingly cracked in the final 500m, crossing the line 14 seconds behind the Dutchman.

That gap combined with the 10 bonus seconds awarded for the stage win means that Dumoulin's lead in the GC has now extended to almost three minutes.

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Coming from the Stage 10 time trial, which saw all of the main contenders lose time to Dumoulin, this was an opportunity for the stronger climbers to close the gap on the Sunweb rider. Approaching the foot of the final climb, the race was all together with all of the teams moving up to protect their GC riders.

Movistar was well positioned but not as organized as it has been previously. Jose Joaquin Rojas and Gorka Izagirre gapped the field as they hit the front. They appeared to misjudge their move as you could see them visually upset over the wasted effort when they looked back and realized the peloton had not followed. Igor Anton (Dimension Data) attacked at 5.5km to go, but Movistar calmly reeled him back into the fold.

Quintana (Movistar) made his move at 4km to go. He jumped off the front of the lead group with Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin) on his wheel. We've seen this happen so many times, using these explosive attacks to ride away to many stage victories. He distanced Zakarin, who was forced to drop back to the chase group. There was a only a select group remaining on wheel of the pink jersey. Iinur Zakarin, Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida), and Mikel Landa (Team Sky) were letting the race leader do all the work to chase Quintana.

Dumoulin never panicked. He settled into a rhythm, gradually shutting down the lead held by Quintana. At 1.5km to go, Dumoulin successfully shut down Quintana's move. There was no time given for any rider to catch his breath. Dumoulin made a few quick attacks, exchanging some angry words with Zakarin, who sat on his wheel but made no move to come through and do any work.

Once it was clear he would receive no assistance, Dumoulin again settled into his time trial rhythm. He dropped Nibali, leaving it between himself, Quintana, Zakarin, and Landa to fight for the stage win. Dumoulin led them into the final turns when Zakarin finally made his move to open up his sprint at 300m to go. Likely motivated by the lack of assistance from Zakarin on the entire climb, Dumoulin immediately responded and powered past the Russian rider to take the stage win.

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It's not quite time to panic for the Movistar team. Quintana is in solid form with a strong team around him. Dumoulin has been isolated from his team very early on the climbs. Movistar should be able to put him under serious pressure in the remaining mountain stages. For those who remember the 2015 Vuelta, Dumoulin lost the race under similar circumstances when he was left alone and attacked by a strong Astana team riding for Fabio Aru.

2017 Giro d'Italia Stage 14 Results

Place	Rider Name (Country) Team	Result
1	Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Sunweb	3:02:34
2	Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin	0:00:03
3	Mikel Landa (Spa) Team Sky	0:00:09
4	Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team	0:00:14
5	Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ	0:00:35
6	Adam Yates (GBr) Orica-Scott	0:00:41
7	Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Bahrain-Merida	0:00:43
8	Franco Pellizotti (Ita) Bahrain-Merida
9	Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo	0:00:46
10	Tanel Kangert (Est) Astana Pro Team
11	Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale	0:00:50
12	Jan Hirt (Cze) CCC Sprandi Polkowice	0:01:00
13	Sébastien Reichenbach (Swi) FDJ	0:01:12
14	Patrick Konrad (Aut) Bora-Hansgrohe	0:01:14
15	Igor Anton (Spa) Dimension Data
16	Rui Costa (Por) UAE Team Emirates	0:01:19
17	Jan Polanc (Slo) UAE Team Emirates	0:01:22
18	Laurens De Plus (Bel) Quick-Step Floors
19	Bob Jungels (Lux) Quick-Step Floors
20	Davide Formolo (Ita) Cannondale-Drapac	0:01:26
21	Dario Cataldo (Ita) Astana Pro Team	0:01:44
22	Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek-Segafredo
23	Winner Anacona (Col) Movistar Team
24	Ben Hermans (Bel) BMC Racing Team	0:02:04
25	Jesper Hansen (Den) Astana Pro Team
26	Giovanni Visconti (Ita) Bahrain-Merida
27	Sebastian Henao (Col) Team Sky
28	Jacques Janse Van Rensburg (RSA) Dimension Data
29	Andrey Amador (CRc) Movistar Team	0:02:21
30	Philip Deignan (Irl) Team Sky
31	Simone Petilli (Ita) UAE Team Emirates	0:02:29
32	Cristian Rodriguez (Spa) Wilier Triestina	0:02:31
33	Hubert Dupont (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
34	Hugh Carthy (GBr) Cannondale-Drapac	0:02:36
35	Diego Rosa (Ita) Team Sky	0:02:40
36	Dylan Teuns (Bel) BMC Racing Team	0:02:55
37	Rudy Molard (Fra) FDJ	0:03:01
38	Tom-Jelte Slagter (Ned) Cannondale-Drapac
39	Stef Clement (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo
40	Michal Schlegel (Cze) CCC Sprandi Polkowice
41	José Mendes (Por) Bora-Hansgrohe	0:03:05
42	Manuel Senni (Ita) BMC Racing Team
43	Laurens Ten Dam (Ned) Team Sunweb	0:03:11
44	Gorka Izagirre (Spa) Movistar Team	0:03:28
45	Tomasz Marczynski (Pol) Lotto Soudal	0:03:35
46	Maxime Monfort (Bel) Lotto Soudal
47	Quentin Jauregui (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
48	Julien Bernard (Fra) Trek-Segafredo
49	Kanstantsin Siutsou (Blr) Bahrain-Merida
50	Ruben Plaza (Spa) Orica-Scott
51	Andrey Zeits (Kaz) Astana Pro Team
52	Eros Capecchi (Ita) Quick-Step Floors	0:03:58
53	Pierre Rolland (Fra) Cannondale-Drapac	0:04:12
54	Julen Amezqueta (Spa) Wilier Triestina	0:04:15
55	Robert Kiserlovski (Cro) Katusha-Alpecin	0:05:33
56	Peter Stetina (USA) Trek-Segafredo	0:06:13
57	Ben Gastauer (Lux) AG2R La Mondiale
58	Steve Morabito (Swi) FDJ
59	Jesus Hernandez (Spa) Trek-Segafredo
60	Clement Chevrier (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
61	Matvey Mamykin (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin
62	Tejay Van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing Team
63	Simon Geschke (Ger) Team Sunweb
64	Georg Preidler (Aut) Team Sunweb	0:06:27
65	Tobias Ludvigsson (Swe) FDJ
66	Dries Devenyns (Bel) Quick-Step Floors	0:06:46
67	Alexander Foliforov (Rus) Gazprom - Rusvelo	0:06:56
68	Sergey Firsanov (Rus) Gazprom - Rusvelo
69	Daniel Teklehaimanot (Eri) Dimension Data
70	Jose Rojas (Spa) Movistar Team	0:07:41
71	Jose Herrada (Spa) Movistar Team
72	Victor De La Parte (Spa) Movistar Team
73	Carlos Verona (Spa) Orica-Scott
74	Bram Tankink (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo
75	Davide Villella (Ita) Cannondale-Drapac
76	Pello Bilbao (Spa) Astana Pro Team
77	Michael Woods (Can) Cannondale-Drapac
78	Kenny Elissonde (Fra) Team Sky
79	Joe Dombrowski (USA) Cannondale-Drapac
80	François Bidard (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
81	Luis León Sánchez (Spa) Astana Team
82	Lukasz Owsian (Pol) CCC Sprandi Polkowice	0:08:23
83	Branislau Samoilau (Blr) CCC Sprandi Polkowice
84	Bart De Clercq (Bel) Lotto Soudal
85	Chad Haga (USA) Team Sunweb	0:08:37
86	Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) Team LottoNl-Jumbo	0:08:50
87	Valerio Agnoli (Ita) Bahrain-Merida	0:09:11
88	Ryan Gibbons (RSA) Dimension Data
89	Manuele Boaro (Ita) Bahrain-Merida
90	Edward Ravasi (Ita) UAE Team Emirates
91	Luka Pibernik (Slo) Bahrain-Merida
92	Enrico Battaglin (Ita) Team LottoNl-Jumbo
93	Gregor Mühlberger (Aut) Bora-Hansgrohe
94	Joey Rosskopf (USA) BMC Racing Team	0:09:54
95	Alex Howes (USA) Cannondale-Drapac
96	Silvan Dillier (Swi) BMC Racing Team	0:10:05
97	Paolo Tiralongo (Ita) Astana Pro Team
98	Sindre Skjøstad Lunke (Nor) Team Sunweb	0:10:28
99	Jasper De Buyst (Bel) Lotto Soudal	0:11:17
100	Sean De Bie (Bel) Lotto Soudal
101	Enrico Gasparotto (Ita) Bahrain-Merida	0:12:15
102	Vasil Kiryienka (Blr) Team Sky
103	Matteo Montaguti (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale	0:12:33
104	Filippo Pozzato (Ita) Wilier Triestina
105	Michael Hepburn (Aus) Orica-Scott
106	Eugert Zhupa (Alb) Wilier Triestina
107	Julien Berard (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
108	Martijn Keizer (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo
109	Jan Bárta (Cze) Bora-Hansgrohe
110	Cesare Benedetti (Ita) Bora-Hansgrohe
111	Kristian Sbaragli (Ita) Dimension Data
112	Marco Marcato (Ita) UAE Team Emirates
113	Matej Mohoric (Slo) UAE Team Emirates
114	Maciej Paterski (Pol) CCC Sprandi Polkowice
115	Felix Großschartner (Aut) CCC Sprandi Polkowice
116	Omar Fraile (Spa) Dimension Data
117	Johann Van Zyl (RSA) Dimension Data
118	Matteo Busato (Ita) Wilier Triestina
119	Christopher Juul Jensen (Den) Orica-Scott
120	Ángel Vicioso (Spa) Katusha-Alpecin
121	Evgeny Shalunov (Rus) Gazprom - Rusvelo	0:12:41
122	Francisco Ventoso (Spa) BMC Racing Team
123	Moreno Hofland (Ned) Lotto Soudal
124	Jos Van Emden (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo	0:13:00
125	Daniel Martinez (Col) Wilier Triestina
126	Giulio Ciccone (Ita) Bardiani CSF
127	Lars Ytting Bak (Den) Lotto Soudal
128	Michal Golas (Pol) Team Sky
129	Salvatore Puccio (Ita) Team Sky
130	Fernando Gaviria (Col) Quick-Step Floors
131	Iljo Keisse (Bel) Quick-Step Floors
132	Ivan Rovny (Rus) Gazprom - Rusvelo	0:13:56
133	Lukas Pöstlberger (Aut) Bora-Hansgrohe	0:14:15
134	Pieter Serry (Bel) Quick-Step Floors	0:14:22
135	Tom Stamsnijder (Ned) Team Sunweb	0:14:38
136	Manuel Quinziato (Ita) BMC Racing Team
137	Rory Sutherland (Aus) Movistar Team
138	Matthieu Ladagnous (Fra) FDJ
139	Aleksei Tcatevich (Rus) Gazprom - Rusvelo
140	Valerio Conti (Ita) UAE Team Emirates
141	Enrico Barbin (Ita) Bardiani CSF
142	Simone Andreetta (Ita) Bardiani CSF
143	Kristijan Koren (Slo) Cannondale-Drapac
144	Lorenzo Rota (Ita) Bardiani CSF
145	Mirco Maestri (Ita) Bardiani CSF
146	Simone Ponzi (Ita) CCC Sprandi Polkowice
147	Jan Tratnik (Slo) CCC Sprandi Polkowice
148	Luka Mezgec (Slo) Orica-Scott
149	Alexander Edmondson (Aus) Orica-Scott
150	Alberto Losada (Spa) Katusha-Alpecin
151	Twan Castelijns (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo
152	Victor Campenaerts (Bel) Team LottoNl-Jumbo
153	Jasper Stuyven (Bel) Trek-Segafredo
154	Pavel Brutt (Rus) Gazprom - Rusvelo
155	Dmitriy Kozontchuk (Rus) Gazprom - Rusvelo
156	Mads Pedersen (Den) Trek-Segafredo
157	Natnael Berhane (Eri) Dimension Data
158	Davide Martinelli (Ita) Quick-Step Floors
159	Maxim Belkov (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin
160	Caleb Ewan (Aus) Orica-Scott
161	Ivan Savitckii (Rus) Gazprom - Rusvelo
162	Svein Tuft (Can) Orica-Scott
163	José Gonçalves (Por) Katusha-Alpecin
164	Sacha Modolo (Ita) UAE Team Emirates
165	William Bonnet (Fra) FDJ
166	Jérémy Roy (Fra) FDJ
167	Viacheslav Kuznetsov (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin
168	Benoit Vaugrenard (Fra) FDJ
169	Roberto Ferrari (Ita) UAE Team Emirates
170	Daniele Bennati (Ita) Movistar Team
171	Ilia Koshevoy (Blr) Wilier Triestina
172	Sergey Lagutin (Rus) Gazprom - Rusvelo	0:15:17
173	Zhandos Bizhigitov (Kaz) Astana Pro Team
174	Marcin Bialoblocki (Pol) CCC Sprandi Polkowice	0:15:21
175	Maximiliano Richeze (Arg) Quick-Step Floors	0:16:01
176	Vincenzo Albanese (Ita) Bardiani CSF
177	Phil Bauhaus (Ger) Team Sunweb	0:16:05
178	Eugenio Alafaci (Ita) Trek-Segafredo	0:16:07
179	Nicola Boem (Ita) Bardiani CSF	0:16:10
180	Adam James Hansen (Aus) Lotto Soudal
181	Sam Bennett (Irl) Bora-Hansgrohe
182	Rüdiger Selig (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe
183	Giuseppe Fonzi (Ita) Wilier Triestina	0:16:14
DNS	André Greipel (Ger) Lotto Soudal
DNS	Jakub Mareczko (Ita) Wilier Triestina