The 10th stage is probably one of the least interesting in the route of the Giro. The route is almost completely flat between Modena and Salsomaggiore Terme with only a small hill on the entrance to the town. This hill will put the sprinters to the test but the remaining 6 kilometers should be enough for the teams to reorganize and control the final sprint. It will also be interesting to see how the fight for the points' jersey unfolds.
There were a few kilometers at the start of the day where the teams of the sprinters had to control the pace not to let a big group go. In the end only 4 riders formed the break of the day: Luis Leon Sanchez (Discovery), Sonny Colbrelli (LottoNL), Christophe Juul (Giant) and David Millar (HTC). Lotto, Astana and Tinkoff were the teams controlling the pace but they should also be aware of the wind, which is blowing again today and could make things more difficult.
The intermediate sprint was placed in Mirandola, 110 kilometers from the finish line. Andre Greipel easily beat Tyler Farrar and Marcel Kittel, putting the points' jersey of Ben Swift in danger. The gap of the break was still in the 4 minutes area. However, in the run towards Mirandola the wind was blowing from the side and the peloton broke into two pieces with riders like Chris Froome and Vincenzo Nibali staying in the back part. It might be a chance for a fight if any team is interested.
There was peace in the peloton after the sprint and the stage was rather dull until the last kilometers. As the riders turned towards Salsomaggiore Terme the wind started to blow from their backs again and the road was not too wide. With 10 kilometers to go the early break was a mere 30 seconds ahead and about to be caught by a peloton led by Andrea Guardini, Bradley Wiggins and Maxim Iglinskiy. The group was stretched ahead of the only small hill of the day but most of the riders have not used too much energy and are quite fresh.
Robert Kiserlovski was leading the way with 3 kilometers to go but the sprint trains were not set up yet as a crash tangled up the order considerably. The final hill was a bit more difficult than expected for some riders and David Millar and Christophe Juul put the peloton in trouble. The descent was quite quick and a crash almost at the bottom broke the pack into two. Among those involved were Vincenzo Nibali, Rein Taaramae and Alexander Kristoff. They are going to lose time at the finish for sure. It is a shame for Nibali, who was doing great in the race.
Luca Paolini is leading Marcel Kittel in a perfect position ahead of the last kilometer of the stage with Mark Cavendish right behind. Lotto and Tinkoff also have lead out men for Andre Greipel and Tyler Farrar but are a bit behind, while other sprinters like Ben Swift and Lloyd Mondory are also well positioned to fight for the win. Meanwhile, more news on the crash arrived and it seems that Alexander Kristoff took down Peter Stetina and Tanel Kangert with him. That is terrible news for the American rider. Also, Nicolas Roche and Xavi Tondo had to retire from the race due to the earlier crash.
Marcel Kittel makes the move with 600 meters to go and the rest of the sprinters did not move much earlier. With 500 meters to go his teammate Luca Paolini was still the second rider on the road. Mark Cavendish was third and the two Lotto sprinters, Michael Matthews and Andre Greipel completed the top 5. It seemed that Greipel was even having trouble getting past Matthews, who had been leading him for at least 1 kilometer.
Marcel Kittel wins in Salsomaggiore Terme! The German finally manages to get his first win of the year. This must be a good release of pressure for him, given that there was already talk of the decline of his speed. Luca Paolini did a great job for him again but he delivered a much better sprint than in the previous stages. Lloyd Mondory progressed a lot and took the second place in the stage but was not a threat to Kittel's win.
Andre Greipel took the 3rd place and did not look great but it was enough to move into the first position of the points' competition. Tyler Farrar and Mark Cavendish completed the top 5 in the stage. Nevertheless, the most important outcome of the stage was the 4 minutes that Peter Stetina and Vincenzo Nibali lost in the finish line. That puts their hopes for a final win in the Giro much in doubt. There were even talks of both of them being injured and close to retiring from the race.
Yeah, finally Kittel delivers, his team mates have worked a lot for him this season and he kept on disappointing. Bad luck for Nibali and Stetina, but that's cycling.
Today's stage is completely different to the one that the riders tackled yesterday. However, even though the Naso di Gatto, a 7.7 kilometers climb averaging 7.8%, is 27 kilometers from the finish line it has been categorized as flat. It is a mystery how this happened but the fact that the stage is right before the time trial should make the favorites less inclined to attack and a break has a good chance of taking the win today.
Today's break was rather weak. Only 4 riders were interested in trying to take the stage win in Savona: Reinardt Janse van Rensburg (Cofidis), Mauro Santambrogio (Sky), Marco Marcato (BMC) and Lars Boom (Giant). The first climb of the day was the Passo Centro Croci, just before the descent towards the Mediterranean Sea. Santambrogio was the first at the top, 183 kilometers from the finish line. Their gap was already 7 minutes on the peloton. Meanwhile, Astana, Tinkoff and Euskaltel were setting the pace in the bunch.
There was a very long section of the stage that went parallel to the Mediterranean, mostly flat. That was useful for the peloton to slowly cut back the lead of the break. The teams of the sprinters thought that their riders would be able to go through the Naso di Gatto and chased. In the intermediate sprint in Varazze, 55 kilometers to go, Marcel Kittel was faster than Andre Greipel and Ben Swift. The break still had a gap of 3 minutes and the outcome of the stage will depend a lot on how quickly the bunch decides to climb the Naso di Gatto.
The final loop around Savona started with 45 kilometers to go but there were a few extra kilometers before the start of the climb proper. The 4 riders at the front started the climb with 2' 35'' on the main bunch, where Astana, Tinkoff and Lotto chased. Some of the outsider climbers should make a move as they will not have a better day to try to win a stage. Lotto might be working for Michael Matthews today, given that the Australian handles the climbs better than Andre Greipel.
Lotto was leading the main bunch halfway through the climb with Bradley Wiggins and Przemyslaw Niemiec. Alexandre Vinokourov was right behind for Astana. There were riders already losing contact with the back of the pack but the gap to the break was still 2' 20''. Given that most of the route after the top of the climb is downhill, those at front might have a chance if they crown it with a 2 minutes gap. The main sprinters were far back in the order but struggling to hold on.
Mauro Santambrogio was alone at the front of the race at the top of the Naso di Gatto, 27 kilometers from the finish line in Savona. The Italian attacked a bit more than 2 kilometers from the top and the others in the break could not follow. He had 45 seconds on Marco Marcato and Lars Boom, 1' 15'' on Reinardt Janse van Rensburg and 2' 20'' on the bunch. Santambrogio is not a great descender but the gap might be enough. Yoann Offredo was leading the bunch but that was a sign that the pace was not too high. Surprisingly no one attacked in the bunch.
Halfway through the descent Mauro Santambrogio was still leading the race with a gap of 25 seconds over Marco Marcato but the peloton was cutting back his lead rather fast and the gap was at 1' 15''. Dries Devenyns had tried an attack as they went past the KoM sprint but Lotto put Rafal Majka to chase him back and his adventure did not last long. Surely the Belgian should have tried to attack a bit earlier. Given that many riders stayed in the bunch, including several sprinters, the rain might be dangerous as it started only a few minutes before.
Mauro Santambrogio was finally caught with 4 kilometers to go, already in the outskirts of Savona. Lotto took the lead of the pack early on and Rafal Majka led Michael Matthews and Andre Greipel to the best position within the last 2 kilometers. Giacomo Nizzolo and Oscar Freire were right behind. Meanwhile, Grega Bole was trying to make Marcel Kittel progress but they seemed way too tired to mount a bid for the win. Matthew Goss and Tyler Farrar were also close to the front.
Michael Matthews was still leading Andre Greipel with 600 meters to go. The German had probably done a great effort in trying to get through the Naso di Gatto and did not have any energy left. Giacomo Nizzolo was right behind trying to catch them unaware and was already making his move. Meanwhile, Tyler Farrar and Jure Kocjan were trying to close the gap to those in front but it was going to be difficult. Nevertheless, given the length of the stage and the toughness of the climbs we might see anything happen in the last meters.
Giacomo Nizzolo wins in Savona! The Italian surprised the better sprinters and took his first win of the season in one of the strangest sprints we have seen this season. Andre Greipel was wasted in the last meters and could not hold off the attack from the Italian. Nevertheless, the German retained the second place ahead of his fellow countryman, Marcel Kittel. It was surprising to see riders that have so much trouble going through the climbs to survive the Naso di Gatto. Tyler Farrar was 4th and Michael Matthews took the 5th place in the stage.
All in all it was a very disappointing stage. It might be understandable for those riders involved in the GC ahead of the time trial. However, there are many other climbers that would have made a decent gap ahead of the sprinters in a climb like the Naso di Gatto to fight for the stage. Only Dries Devenyns did a half hearted attempt at breaking the status quo at the top of the climb. Tomorrow's stage will be much more interesting and the GC will probably change quite a bit.
The 12th stage is the only more or less flat time trial in the route of the 2016 Giro d'Italia. The route of the stage is moderately uphill in the first third, where a 4th category climb is placed in Boscasso. After that the riders will go downhill towards Alba and a flat section before the two hills before the finish line in Barolo. All in all, the stage is 42 kilometers long, which should produce decent gaps in the stage among the favorites for the GC.
Robert Gesink (Ag2r) started the day on the 13th place in the GC and did not have such a good day. The Dutch was 8th in the provisional time sheet, 1' 01'' behind the best rider so far, David Millar. The British had had a very good day, better than expected in such a hilly time trial. Meanwhile, Robert Gesink lost lots of time against Tejay van Garderen, who clearly got past him in the General Classification after today. It has not been the best of the Grand Tours for Gesink so far.
The next rider to finish was another Dutch, Bauke Mollema (Vacansoleil). He has had renowned performances in the past in time trials like this one and today he was quite solid, finishing in the provisional 4th place, 46 seconds behind David Millar. Mollema already won the Tour de Romandie this year thanks to being the best time trialist among the climbers. Nevertheless, he almost lost his position in the GC to Tejay van Garderen. They finished the day tied in overall time.
Once Vincenzo Nibali crashed the other day, one of the riders in which the Italian community relies on is Marco Pinotti (Quickstep). The Italian was one of the favorites for the stage and did not disappoint. He was only 3 seconds quicker than David Millar but it was enough for him to go to the top of the classification with 10 riders to finish. This performance would surely allow him to move a few positions up the order in the GC and most likely ahead of the other Italian, Michele Scarponi.
The European Time Trial Champion, Jean-Christophe Peraud (Discovery), was inside the top 10 before the start of the stage and was logically aiming to improve on that position. He was never with the very best but managed to get the 4th provisional time, only behind some of the best time trialists in the World. He was 29 seconds slower than Marco Pinotti. This result put Pinotti 7 seconds ahead of Peraud in the GC but the French would surely get past a couple of riders.
Andrew Talansky (HTC) had the good reference of his teammate David Millar in his own team and, although he never expected to be on par with him, lost a bit more time than what he expected. When he crossed the line he was 8th fastest, 56 seconds behind Marco Pinotti, which meant that Pinotti would be at least 6th when the day finished. Talansky would be 3 seconds behind him in the GC. The differences produced by the time trial were considerable, as Talansky is among the good riders against the clock and was 2nd in last year's World Championship.
The first of Euskaltel's riders in the GC to start was Hubert Dupont. The French is not among the best climbers against the clock and by the time he crossed the finish line he had lost a total of 1' 24'' against Marco Pinotti. It was a big hit for Dupont, who was going to fall down the order in the GC as riders like Marco Pinotti, Andrew Talansky and Jean-Christophe Peraud would get ahead. Nevertheless, the French would still be inside the top 10 comfortably and that is always an advantage to the team. They can play the card of Dupont or David Lopez as they wish.
Mathias Frank (IAM) lost a bit of time in the stage finishing in Montecopiolo but was only 45 seconds behind in the GC before today's time trial. The Swiss was among the favorites for the stage and crossed the finish line in the 4th position, only 18 seconds behind Pinotti. That will keep Frank very much in the mix for the overall win of the Giro d'Italia. Frank has only been once in the podium of a Grand Tour so far, in the 2014 Tour de France. That was the race that brought him to the spotlight and since then he has been a contender in most of the races he has taken part in.
Robert Kiserlovski (Lotto) is the option from the Belgian team to do something good in the GC of the Giro and the Croatian has surprise on the positive side so far. However, Kiserlovski had a tough day today given that he is not that good against the clock. Nevertheless, his performance was not bad at all considering the precedents. He crossed the finish line in the 13th provisional place, 1' 03'' behind Pinotti and close to better time trialists like Jerome Coppel or Chris Froome.
The main candidate to take the pink jersey from David Lopez today was Laurens Ten Dam (Cannondale). The winner of last year's Tour de France almost took the stage win given that the Dutch only lost 12 seconds on the finish line and took the 4th provisional place so far. This basically means that Marco Pinotti will take the stage win, given that it would be a long shot for David Lopez to take the stage win. Ten Dam has been outstanding in this Giro so far and he has to be the favorite to take the pink jersey home at the end of the race.
David Lopez (Euskaltel) started the day in pink but it was very difficult for him to hold on to it given that he only had 1 second over Laurens Ten Dam. The Spaniard did not manage to stay in pink as he finished 7th, 42 seconds behind the winner of the stage, Marco Pinotti. Lopez will then drop to 2nd in the general classification 29 seconds behind Laurens Ten Dam. Lopez will have to gain back time if he wants to take the win in the Giro but he will not complain of a shortage of mountain-top finishes to do it.
Marco Pinotti took the stage win, his first of the year. The Italian will be very satisfied and this result already justifies his presence in the Giro. He is also 5th in the GC and he could well convert this into a top 10 at the end of the race. In terms of the GC there are only 3 riders within one minute of the leader, Laurens Ten Dam. Tomorrow's stage will be an easy one but the race turns very difficult for the very mountainous last week.
The mountains are already looming over the heads of the riders as the last week of the Giro will be very tough, with as many as 6 mountain-top finishes including the time trial to the Monte Grappa. However, there is one more stage before that where the sprinters should fight again for the stage win. Today's stage is rather short and has no difficulties whatsoever so it should be very straightforward to control for the teams of the sprinters.
There was not a big fight to take the break of the day and the group that was formed only had 5 riders: Luis Leon Sanchez (Discovery), Jeremy Roy (Ag2r), Luke Durbridge (Cofidis), Sebastian Langeveld (Movistar) and Tom van Asbroeck (Vacansoleil). With 78 kilometers to go they had a gap of 5' 30'' over the main bunch but it looked not big enough as Tinkoff, Astana and Lotto were controlling the pace in the bunch. It was an easy day for the riders in the peloton.
The Salita di Rivara was the only categorized climb of the day but, even if it had slopes up to 10% in gradient, it was less than 1 kilometer long. Jeremy Roy was the first through the KoM sprint. In the main bunch Lotto and Astana were doing most of the chasing job with Rafal Majka, Bradley Wiggins and Yoann Offredo. The gap had come down to 2' 30'', so with 33 kilometers still remaining there were no doubts that a mass sprint would be the way to go.
The intermediate sprint was very close to the finish line today, in the town of Cuorgne and 14 kilometers from the finish line. The break had already been caught and the sprinters decided to give it all chasing the points. Andre Greipel was quickest ahead of Tyler Farrar and Marcel Kittel. It was a hard effort right before the finish line. There might be surprises in the finish line given that some of the sprinters did a big effort.
Lotto and Astana had already formed their sprint trains with 3 kilometers to go but, as usual, Tinkoff was delayed and Michael Morkov was still trying to take Tyler Farrar to the front. Michael Matthews would be leading Andre Greipel for Lotto, with Kenny van Hummel right behind. For Astana it was Luca Paolini leading Marcel Kittel and Fran Ventoso was following them. Ben Swift and Elia Viviani were also well positioned ahead of the final sprint. On the other hand we were missing Alexander Kristoff, who was still suffering from the crash he had a few stages ago.
Luca Paolini was not as strong as usual and Marcel Kittel had to start his sprint very early, more than 1 kilometer before the line. On the left hand side of the road Michael Matthews was still very strong and making Andre Greipel progress much faster than anyone else. Greipel did not even have anyone on his wheel and no one else was benefiting. Kenny van Hummel, Ben Swift and Elia Viviani were the alternatives for the stage win, while Tyler Farrar was completely outside the mix.
Andre Greipel started his final sprint with 700 meters to go and got quickly ahead of his teammate Michael Matthews. However, others were struggling to follow and the closest contender, Marcel Kittel, did not seem to have the legs at all to fight for the win today. Kenny van Hummel and Ben Swift were also trying to make progress but they seemed to be a bit too far behind. The Dutch was well positioned on the wheel of Greipel but it would be difficult for him to get past.
Andre Greipel wins in Rivarolo Canavese! The German was by far the best sprinter today and easily took the 2nd stage win in the Giro d'Italia for him. The only rider that could more or less follow his wheel was Kenny van Hummel but he was never in a position to fight for the win at all. Greipel had also won the intermediate sprint so he also consolidated his lead in the points' competition. With not too many stages for the sprinters left he is looking very good to win the jersey in Trieste.
Ben Swift took the third position today and he seems to be missing that peak speed that he had in the first week. Marcel Kittel was 4th ahead of Tyler Farrar. The day was quite easy for the favorites in the GC and it was a day of recovery after the time trial. However, the roads turn much more difficult from tomorrow with the finish in Oropa. The order in the mountains might have changed after 1 week of racing since the last mountain stage.
A very long week of mountains is on the horizon for the riders. It starts on the third Saturday of the race, when the race will finish at the top of the Sacro Monte di Oropa. The final climb might not be extremely tough, with 10.2 kilometers averaging 6.7%, but is preceded by the tougher Alpe Noveis and Bielmonte. The first is not too long but very steep, while the second is 18 kilometers long and takes the riders to a very high altitude. It will be interesting to see what the order of the climbers is at the start of the decisive part of the race.
It was going to be a very interesting day given that Peter Stetina (BMC), last year's winner of the race, joined the early break after the climb to La Serra. He was in a group of 8, including Rafal Majka (Lotto), Oscar Freire (Lampre), Maxime Monfort (Quickstep) and Roman Kreuziger (Ag2r). Stetina crashed a few stages ago and was suffering from the injuries but was still within 6 minutes of the leader before today. The main bunch should not give them too much time and by no means should they allow Stetina back in the mix for the win of the race.
IAM was the only team that chased the break in the climb to Alpe Noveis. However, Warren Barguil and Pierrick Fedrigo were unable to cut the lead to the front and the gap was still in the 6 minutes area. Nevertheless, that was a much quicker climb than expected to a very tough climb and many riders had already dropped from the peloton. Cannondale did not care about the gap to the break and let IAM do the hard work. In the end, Laurens Ten Dam is farther away from the American than others in the top 10.
Peter Stetina took the responsibility to set the pace in the front group at the third climb of the day, Bielmonte. Halfway through the climb, 49 kilometers to the finish line, he was already hurting some of the others in the break and Oscar Freire had dropped from the group. Michael Albasini was chasing for IAM, which was still the only team working. The gap had dropped to 5 minutes but still coming down very slowly. Only Damiano Caruso was relaying for Cannondale sporadically but the pace meant that only 75 riders survived in the leader's group.
Some riders could not wait to see how Peter Stetina got closer in the general classification and decided enough was enough. Hubert Dupont was the first to attack, taking advantage of the two options that Euskaltel has, and Andrew Talansky followed him. They cut the lead of the front group to 3' 15'' at the top of Bielmonte. Another group of 5 riders formed behind them, including Marco Pinotti and Jean-Christophe Peraud. Meanwhile, Oliver Zaugg was leading the peloton through the top of the climb for Cannondale, 4' 20'' behind the leaders.
The descent of Bielmonte was not very steep and had long sections of road that was only slightly descending. That did not favor the early break at all and by the time they made it to Biella, where the climb to Oropa starts, they only had 25 seconds over a group of 10 riders that got together in the descent. The group of the leader also descended much faster and was 1' 05'' behind at that point, only 13 kilometers to the finish. The climb to Oropa, which is not too difficult in a normal day, would be much tougher today after all the chases in the last 50 kilometers.
The group of the leader caught up with all those that were ahead in the first slopes of Oropa but Peter Stetina was determined to make a difference today and attacked straight away. The American was quickly followed by his countryman Tejay van Garderen. With 8 kilometers to go, before the toughest part of the climb, Stetina had 10 seconds on Van Garderen and 20 on the leader. Laurens Ten Dam has no need to attack so he can wait for the others to make a move and try to follow them.
Bauke Mollema might be on the edge of the top 10 in the GC but his attack in the most difficult part of the climb was a very good one. Jean-Christohpe Peraud joined him and also Tejay van Garderen when they reached his position. On the other hand, Peter Stetina ran out of steam after a very long day in the saddle. Laurens Ten Dam was letting Oliver Zaugg do the work for him and comfortably sat on his wheel. Robert Kiserlovski and David Lopez stayed close to the leader to mark every single move.
Jean-Christophe Peraud left Bauke Mollema and Tejay van Garderen behind but with 2 kilometers to go it was David Lopez who had attacked from the group of the leader and was coming threateningly close to the French. Only 10 seconds separated them, while Laurens Ten Dam's group, including Mathias Frank and Robert Kiserlovski, was 30 seconds behind Peraud. Among those losing time already were Rob Ruijgh and Robert Gesink, 1 minute behind, and Marco Pinotti and Michael Rogers, 1' 15'' behind. Lopez's attack was very dangerous to Ten Dam, who had not made a bid to go with him.
David Lopez got past Jean-Christophe Peraud inside the last kilometer of the stage and was heading toward the stage win in Oropa. They still had 20 seconds on Laurens Ten Dam with 700 meters to go. The Dutch had attacked from the group and no one had been able to follow. A group of 7 was chasing, 40 seconds behind Lopez, led by Mathias Frank and Bauke Mollema. The leader's jersey might change hands today as the difference between Ten Dam and Lopez was only 29 seconds before the stage.
David Lopez wins in Oropa! The Spaniard easily beat Jean-Christophe Peraud in the final sprint next to the sanctuary and gets his 7th win of the season. He is clearly the rider with the most wins this season ahead of 3 others with 4. If Lopez was expected to be up there, Peraud is much more of a surprise. The French managed to get rid of lots of supposedly better riders in the mountains than him. Laurens Ten Dam took the third in the stage and managed to save the pink jersey by a tiny 5 seconds margin.
A bit farther behind arrived Mathias Frank, 44 seconds behind, while a slightly bigger group crossed the finish line 54 seconds behind Lopez. Ten Dam and Lopez are now the clear favorites to take the overall win in the Giro, given that Frank is now more than 1 minute down. Jean-Christophe Peraud moved onto the 4th position overall, while Marco Pinotti dropped considerably and will probably suffer to hold on to the top 10. Kenny van Hummel is also worth a mention given that, even if he was out of time limit after a crash in the descent of Bielmonte, he managed to finish the stage albeit more than 1 hour behind.
The third weekend of the race had the mountain-top finish yesterday in Oropa and today in Plan di Montecampione. The final climb is much tougher than yesterday, an impressive 18.9 kilometers climb averaging 7.7%. However, the route before the climb is completely flat today, so the riders would be rather fresh when they start the climb even though the stage is 225 kilometers long. Plan di Montecampione should be hard enough on its own to create significant gaps among the top climber in the GC.
Cannondale was not too worried about the break early in the day and as many as 10 riders formed the break of the day. It included important riders like Philippe Gilbert (Trek), Johan Vansummeren (HTC), Kanstantsin Siutsou (BMC), Bradley Wiggins (Lotto) and Geraint Thomas (Tinkoff). Cannondale was setting the pace with Fabian Cancellara and Jerome Baugnies and the gap was around 5 minutes with 130 kilometers remaining. Cancellara alone was keeping a pace in some sections that did not allow the break to go too far.
The intermediate sprint was placed in Bergamo, 81 kilometers from the finish line, but there were no points left for the sprinters and it was a non event in the main bunch. Cannondale was still setting the pace, mainly with Fabian Cancellara, Damiano Caruso and Matti Breschel in the last kilometers. The gap had slowly increased to around 6' 40'' in the endless flat section they were doing north of Milano. If the break manages to survive in such a difficult climb with this margin, Kanstantsin Siutsou should be the better climber in the group.
There was nothing major other than Cannondale chasing harder before the start of the Plan di Montecampione. However, as soon as the road shoot up Sergey Chernetskiy attacked and was followed by Bradley Wiggins, who soon left him behind in a bid for a solo effort up the mountain. Jesus Herrada also attacked but with 16 kilometers to go was already losing 1 minute to the British. Bauke Mollema was also quick to attack on the main bunch and that was bad news for the early break as the gap to the group of the leader quickly came down to 3' 30'', clearly not enough for them to have a chance.
Hubert Dupont and Robert Gesink also attacked from the main bunch and soon joined Bauke Mollema. They started to catch riders from the early break with around 12 kilometers to go. By that time, Bradley Wiggins and Sergey Chernetskiy were also close to being reeled back in. Mollema's group had close to 1 minute over the group of the leader, where Chris Froome and Michele Scarponi were leading the chase. There still were around 40 riders in the group and Laurens Ten Dam was dropping down the order to have a look at David Lopez's face. They could let others fight for the stage win given how close they are in the GC.
Only Hubert Dupont and Bauke Mollema still held on at the front of the pack with 8 kilometers to go. Laurens Ten Dam got to the front of the group for a while to get them closer before letting Michele Scarponi set the pace for a while longer. The Movistar rider is the best hope for the Italians in this Giro and wants to be seen as an important rider in the race. Chris Froome was also always close to the front in the group. On the back of the race, riders like Michael Rogers, Dries Devenyns and Denis Menchov had already dropped and were 1' 15'' behind the group of the leader. It was quite early to lose contact.
There is a plateau in between 8 and 5 kilometers to the finish line and Tejay van Garderen waited until the end of that section to attack. He quickly neutralized those in front of the group of favorites, Bauke Mollema the last one that survived. However, the attempt by the American was short lived and Michele Scarponi and Robert Kiserlovski both followed rather easily. David Lopez and Laurens Ten Dam were waiting as usual to the last 2 or 3 kilometers to make their move and seemed to be following easily the others. There were still 17 riders in the front group but Andrew Talansky and Rob Ruijgh were suffering at the back.
David Lopez attacked with 4 kilometers to go but today he did not leave a lot of riders behind. As many as 5 other riders followed him easily and the Spaniard himself was dropped as Robert Kiserlovski and Laurens Ten Dam increased the pace. It was not an attack but the high pace at the front by the Croatian could only be followed by the leader. At the 2 kilometers mark Lopez was 15 seconds behind and 40 seconds back were Mathias Frank, Tejay van Garderen and Michele Scarponi. Bauke Mollema and Hubert Dupont were losing 1 minute already and a group of 4 including Jean-Christophe Peraud was 1' 30'' behind.
Robert Kiserlovski launched the final sprint before Laurens Ten Dam but the leader was trying to get his wheel. With 700 meters to go the Croatian seemed in a better place to take the stage at Plan di Montecampione. The gap to David Lopez was increasing steadily and was already 30 seconds at that stage. The Spaniard might lose some of his chances for a win today. A bit further back the road were Mathias Frank, Tejay van Garderen and Michele Scarponi, losing 1' 05''.
Robert Kiserlovski wins in Plan di Montecampione! The Croatian takes a very important stage win at the top one of the toughest climbs of the race and does it by beating the leader face to face. This is probably the most important performance from Kiserlovski in his career and might put him on course for a podium finish. Ten Dam was not too worried about the stage, given that he increased his gap over David Lopez, who arrived on third, 36 seconds behind and drops to 43 seconds behind in the GC.
Tejay van Garderen lead the following group home, including Michele Scarponi and Mathias Frank. They lost 1' 21'' today. Among the losers today was Jean-Christophe Peraud, who did very well yesterday but lost 2' 01'' in Plan di Montecampione and drops to the 5th place overall, almost 2 minutes behind the podium places. The riders now have a rest day before facing the most awaited for stage in the Giro, with the Passo Gavia, the Passo dello Stelvio and Val Martello.
