UAE Team Emirates’ Jan Polanc maintained his overall lead after a chaotic 13th stage of the Giro d’Italia on Friday.

Polanc crossed the line in 15th position behind stage winner Ilnur Zakarin of Katusha Alpecin. However his effort over the 196km route ensured Polanc carries the leader’s jersey into Saturday’s stage.

With 20kms to go Polanc’s group – containing the race favourites – waited to see who would be first to set off. As the climb unfolded more splits in the group appeared and  Valerio Conti lost contact with team-mate Polanc, leaving UAE Team Emirates’ leader to fight without support.

In the final five km, Polanc found himself isolated from many of the GC contenders. But he used his wealth of experience to ride at this own pace and cross the summit finish line with a lead of 2:25” over his closest GC rival, Primoz Roglic (Jumbo Visma).

Commenting the stage, Slovenia’s Polanc said: “I’m really happy with today. I knew it was going to be a really hard stage. After the big effort yesterday I felt really tired for the first part of the stage, but by the end everyone was suffering. I kept pushing and I was able to defend the pink jersey.”

Stage 14 will be another brutal day in the saddle as the peloton takes on a 131km route from Saint Vincent to Courmayeur with four classified climbs and a summit finish 1,293m above sea level.