Aru quit the Giro d’Italia

The stage which changed the course of the battle for the pink jersey turned out to be the last one on the Giro d’Italia for Fabio Aru.
The Italian champion quit the race after 40 km in the Venaria Reale-Bardonecchia (184 km with the categorized climbs of Colle del Lys, del Colle delle Finestre, del Sestriere e dello Jafferau).

Froome took away the pink jersey from Yates’ shoulders thanks to an attack on the Colle delle Finestre,  when there were still 80 km to cover to the arrival.

Aru (photo Bettini) commented his abandon using these words: “I had said that I’ll evaluate my feelings day by daybecause I feel that I’m going through an abnormal period of my sporting career.
I wanted to keep going and honor the team’s jersey, give the fans something and the race its due respect. But I could not do it.
I’m really soprry for all this, for my team, my family and the sponsors that I represent, but it didn’t male sense to go ahead. 

I’m not going to be dramatic, this is sport and maybe, even if it hurts to say so now, this is the beauty of the sport.
I’ll try to reset and understand together with the team what happened, then I’ll restart thinking of the rest of the season. Because this is what you have to do in difficult moments“.

Stage 19 results
1 Chris Froome (Team Sky) 5h12’26”
2 Richard Carapaz (Movistar) 3′
3 Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) 3’07”
24 Diego Ulissi (UAE Team Emirates) 24’43”

General classification after stage 19
1 Chris Froome (Team Sky) 80h21’59”
2 Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb) 40″
3 Thibaut Pinot 4’17”
26 Diego Ulissi (UAE Team Emirates) 1h12’20”