Pedal pain: Cyclist displays shocking effects on legs during grueling Giro d’Italia (PHOTOS)

Cycling star Jose Joaquin Rojas has displayed the savage toll taken on his legs by the grueling Giro d’Italia, where the 33-year-old Spaniard is competing for Movistar Team.

Rojas took to Instagram to share the effects that 12 stages of the 2,186-mile race have had on his legs so far.

The shocking post showed the rider’s muscular legs bulging with veins as he posed in his Movistar gear.

Rojas captioned the picture: “Stage 13 of the Giro d-Italia, prepared for war, no?”

However gruesome, huge veins such as those displayed by Rojas are nothing unusual for top-level cyclists.

Doctors described the phenomenon earlier this year in Cycling Weekly, explaining how training provides top riders with an “expanded supply of oxygenated blood to the muscles and the extraction of deoxygenated blood, via veins, back to the heart and lungs.”     

That leads to greater dimensions for the veins to meet this extra demand for blood and oxygen – which in this case would have been increased for Rojas after his considerable exertions at the Giro d’Italia.    

Friday’s stage 13 was clinched by Russia’s Ilnur Zakarin, who moved up to third in the overall classification.

Rojas lies 41st overall on a time of 55 hours, 1 minute and 2 seconds, while the general classification is led by Slovenia’s Jan Polanc of UAE Team Emirates.

There will be no respite for Rojas and his legs – nor the other riders – as they negotiate Saturday’s 81-mile (131km) mountain stage from Saint Vincent to Courmayeur which features five monster climbs.