Yesterday's Mountain Time Trial save the race a much needed shake up, with this now being the penultimate Mountain stage. Angel Madrazo making a big inroad to Taylor Phinney's lead. Vincenzo Nibali closing in on Simon Spilak for the podium, and Emanuele Sella finally showing up to the race! No GC position is certain yet, so there is plenty to ride for.
And what better climb than the Passo di Gavia, the Cima Coppi of this year's race. 16km at 8% is surely the perfect springboard to really cause some damage? A descent into Bormio follows, and it's quite hard to predict just what will happen on the downhill roads. If theres gaps at the top, will they still be there at the finish line?
And So. Many. Attacks.
One group of 9 thought they went clear at one point...
Diego Ulissi Philipp Walsleben Ivan Santaromita Brian Vandborg Tom Stubbe William Walker Alex Howes Matteo Rabottini Richard Ochoa Quintero
But they were foiled by counter attacks that included the King of the Mountains Leopold König.
The first 50 kilometres of the stage were filled with attack attempts. At one point 17 teams had a rider clear of the peloton all in one big group:
Wikipedia just kept chasing it all down. As much as those 17 teams want to be in the breakaway that makes it, they are having the added bonus of tiring out the American squad - who have a big Teams Classification lead, and been so strong so far in controlling the race.
But finally, a 10 man group did make it away.
Tom Stubbe Michal Kwiatkowski Lars Croket Kristjan Koren Tim Kennaugh Tim Dees Rafel Majka Maciej Paterski Damiano Caruso William Walker
King of the Mountains points wise, Stubbe has 35 points and Caruso has 32. If one of them could win both climbs, they would take the lead. Big if though when the Gavia is concerned - and neither are the strongest climber in the move, that's Dees.
Caruso is the only one to attack for points on the Cat 2 Aprica.
10 points scored puts him to 42, and up to 3rd in the competition. (Compared to Konig's 58). Stubbe picked up 2 to go to 37 - a missed opportunity for him.
On the descent towards the Gavia, one of the best climbers in the race crashes!
Fear not, its only Fabio Duarte. An absent manager has led to Venchi producing a woeful tactical Giro, and this just makes it worse.
It's okay though, we are barely at the start of the Gavia so he should easily make it back.
Except that Emanuele Sella has just attacked! 28km to the summit, 54km to the finish, but Sella is hungry for time.
Wikipedia vanish from the front of the peloton. A number of the teams have particular interest in not letting Sella get a gap: Project 1t4i and Pearl Adidas will want to defend their position, while Hollister, California Giant and Pendleton's appear to optimistically think their team leaders can overtake Sella at some point.
Four riders tagged on to the Sella move, and now are sat sucking his wheel: Vitor Rodrigues, Aleksandr Dyachenko, Daniel Navarro and Yevgeni Nepomnyachsniy.
Sella has a lead of a minute, and it remains that way for the next 15km or so. Just within reach of the peloton. Its an all or nothing gamble for the Simply Red Bull rider, and it won't be until the steeper parts that he should be able to pull clear of the peloton.
But it is down to just Hollister doing the chasing. Milka send Leopold König forward to help relay - despite having one of their Kazakh brothers up the road - but then change their mind back to attacking, and stage winner Sergio Luis Henao Montoya makes his move.
Ryan Eastman follows the Colombian. But as the road steepens, Emanuele Sella starts turning the screw - looking to stay ahead of the pair.
Only Rodrigues and Navarro can keep up as already they catch the breakaway. But as Stubbe guides Sella to the front of the group, Henao and Eastman make it onto the back.
The gap to the peloton has been going up though. 18 kilometres since Sella started his attack - which means 10km to the summit - and he is now 2 minutes clear of the peloton.
This puts him in range of a number of riders at the lower half of the Top 10. And most of them decide they need to attack! Riccardo Ricco, Romain Sicard, Nico Keinath and Peter Velits.
They make it to the breakaway group, and the pressure is being turned on Wikipedia.
The gap has dropped to 1'30 though, and the peloton know this would be the perfect time to strike - catch the tail end of the group and the poor game dynamics may make Sella and co sit up. Henao and Sella combine together at the front to make sure this does not happen.
And they successfully split the group. Keinath, Velits, Sicard and Eastman are all here, as is Riccardo Ricco who now takes to the front.
Koren is hanging on as best of the break, but won't be there long.
The gap to the peloton is eding back up, 1'42 now. Riccardo Ricco threatening to climb up to 4th, and this does not go unnoticed.
Markus Fothen and Vincenzo Nibali follow an attack led by Robert Kiserlovski, along with Gianpaolo Caruso and Gianluca Brambilla.
It thins out the peloton, which is quickly shredding into small gaps, but does not give them a gap!
Ryan Eastman is finding the going tough up front, and is dropped from the lead group.
The peloton is much reduced now. It is quite an odd situation in that it features all of the Top 5, but the rest of the Top 13, bar Trofimov, are all up the road. Looking down the list, 14th overall Kiserlovski , but 15th overall Augustyn is missing.16th overall Kohl, and 17th overall Caruso stand to gain. 18th overall König is gone, 19th overall Faiers is just being tailed off, while 20th overall López Garcia is nowhere to be seen. Manuel Lloret seems to be doing ok though, and even has a teammate in Moschella - so Lotto could be moving back into the Top 20.
Simon Spilak, Vincenzo Nibali and Angel Madrazo finally attack!
Do they get a gap? No. So Madrazo and Nibali try again.
Still no gap. But Ryan Eastman is caught, and the gap up front is down to 1'15. The summit is only 3 kilometres away, and Madrazo feels the pressure. He left it late and really needs to drop Phinney soon if he wants to win this Giro.
So he tries again.
And this time he gets a gap!
But Emanuele Sella is still flying up front. Along with Sergio Luis Henao Montoya they have teamed up to drop the rest - Ricco included! That's vital for both riders' hopes of breaking into the Top 10.
Madrazo quickly riders up to Keinath and Velits. Taylor Phinney is chasing him, in defense of the maglia rosa. Only Nibali, Fothen and Spilak can keep up with the American.
But hang on, no, they cannot keep up. Phinney leaves them behind and catches Velits and Keinath - only now Madrazo is up with Ricco and Sicard!
A 20 second lead for Madrazo for Phinney - it isnt much. And still the extraordinary Sella ride continues, as he puts Henao into a world of pain.
And pop. Henao is gone. Emanuele Sella hits the Gavia summit alone.
It gives Sella the Cima Coppi. Remarkably, these are his first King of the Mountains points of the whole race - a competition which he won in 2009, 2011 and 2012.
Henao trails by 30 seconds.
Madrazo led Ricco and Sicard up towards the summit, but just before the top, his spirits suddenly drop. Phinney has caught him!
The gaps at the top of the Gavia:
+ 30
+ 1'30
+ 2'26
+ 2'54
Sella
Henao
Ricco
Keinath
Kohl
Madrazo
Nibali
Kiserlovski
Sicard
Fothen
Phinney
Velits
Spilak
+ 3'32
+ 4'10
+ 4'40
+ 6'00
+ 6'30
Brambilla
Moschella
Lloret
Koren
Mai
Caruso
Faiers
Hacecký
Costagli
Trofimov
Pinot
Eastman
Yesterday he finally arrived at the Giro, today he could be on his way to a 12th stage win. And this is surely one of the most impressive and deserved - if Sella can just descend safely and hold off Henao and the rest.
Vincenzo Nibali is meanwhile utilising his top descending skills - dropping Velits from their group.
There was no urgency in the Ricco/Sicard/Madrazo/Phinney group and so Nibali leads the chasers right back up to them. It is bad news for Ricco, and it ends his hopes of gaining on Nibali and particularly Fothen for a Top 5 spot.
Next man up the road for Nibali to chase after is Henao. He started the decent 1 minute ahead .. but is now 1'30 ahead! Super descending from the Colombian. Does that also mean he is closing on Sella?
It does not! Sella enters the final 10km with a 47 second lead. He climbed faster than everyone, and now he is decending faster too!
Velits rejoined the Maglia Rosa group, a further hint that the urgency is not there - although both Sicard and Keinath are now pushing in a bid to limit losses on Sella, and maximise gains on Trofimov.
Speaking of Trofimov, he is doing his best to close that gap! Kohl and Kiserlovski are 40 seconds behind the Maglia Rosa group, Trofimov's group are a further 40 seconds behind them. That keeps Trofimov ahead of Sicard, Keinath and Velits in GC, but only just - he has to keep pushing.
Inside 5km for Sella. Henao is just a speck in the distance.
What a fantastic ride by Emanuele Sella. A 54km attack that saw others join him, only to be later dropped. It may not be his best Giro as a whole, but this stage ensures it will be memorable. Brilliant stage win.
And it was another great ride in the mountains for Sergio Luis Henao Montoya. He finishes 1 minute behind Sella and takes 2nd.
Romain Sicard led the Maglia Rosa group up until the start of the sprint, before Taylor Phinney took over. When Angel Madrazo dropped him, it seemed like the Spaniard was continuing yesterday's work and well on his way to overhauling the American. Instead, Phinney bravely fought back, and sprints to 3rd place to end the day with a gain of 8 seconds.
Only the mighty Zoncolan separates Phinney from his maiden Grand Tour victory now. Sicard, Keinath and Velits faded in the sprint but will receive the same time - which is 1'49 behind Sella.
Kohl and Kiserlovski were caught by Group Trofimov at the finish. The Russian clearly gave it his all as could not keep up in the sprint, but both he and Eastman will receive the same time as Kohl at the front of the group: 3'16 down.
So, no chance at the top of the leaderboard today, but Sella climbs 4 places to 7th overall - now less than a minute behind Ricco in 6th. Trofimov drops to 8th but just clings on to that position - 5 seconds ahead of Sicard, 10 seconds ahead of Keinath and 21 seconds ahead of Velits. Henao therefore remains 12th, still a minute and a half away from the Top 10.
John-Lee Augustyn finished in a large group 12 minutes down - while Leopold König was dropped from that same group in the closing kilometres. The South African drops below Kohl, Caruso and Faiers, while the Czech is now behind Lloret, who is into the Top 20.
Theres a 29 point lead for Phinney in the Points classification and of course remains the best U25. König is still King of the Mountains, and Wikipedia further extend their teams classification lead. Everybody was within the time limit.
1
Emanuele Sella
Simply Red Bull
5h13'07
2
Sergio Luis Henao Montoya
Milka - AVG
+ 1'00
3
Taylor Phinney
Wikipedia
+ 1'49
4
Angel Madrazo
Santander
s.t.
5
Riccardo Ricco
Team Bacardi
s.t.
6
Simon Spilak
Aker - MOT
s.t.
7
Markus Fothen
Festina-Canal+
s.t.
8
Vincenzo Nibali
UBS - BMC
s.t.
9
Romain Sicard
Pearl Adidas
s.t.
10
Peter Velits
Project 1t4i
s.t.
11
Nico Keinath
Team B&O
s.t.
12
Bernhard Kohl
Pendleton's
+ 3'16
13
Gianluca Brambilla
Pro Team Venchi - Sugoi
s.t.
14
Gianpaolo Caruso
Cisco Cycling Team
s.t.
15
Robert Kiserlovski
Hollister Pro Cycling
s.t.
16
Yuri Trofimov
Koenigsegg
s.t.
17
Ryan Eastman
Heineken presented by California Giant Berry Farms
s.t.
18
Martin Hacecký
Team B&O
+ 4'20
19
Thomas Faiers
Pendleton's
s.t.
20
Thibaut Pinot
Wikipedia
s.t.
21
Artemio Moschella
Lotto - Cervelo
s.t.
22
Manuel Lloret
Lotto - Cervelo
s.t.
23
Kristjan Koren
Heineken presented by California Giant Berry Farms
Diego Ulissi
Philipp Walsleben
Ivan Santaromita
Brian Vandborg
Tom Stubbe
William Walker
Alex Howes
Richard Ochoa Quintero
Michal Kwiatkowski
Kristjan Koren
Tim Kennaugh
Tim Dees
