It's a bumpy stage with a slight uphill sprint, but I still think ti's one for the sprinters.

4 men away. There have been absolutely no large breaks in the first week of this Giro.

As a top GC guy now the team had to work a little. but when the break looked like it was getting away and no one wanted to help, we just let it slip.

In the front Adam Hansen was driving away from the others as Niki Sorensen struggled to try to close the gap.

But Hansen had it god, around the final corner and HOLY CRAP THERE'S A TRUCK IN THE MIDDLE OF THE TURN!!!

But in the next shot everyone is fine. that's quite peculiar. Either way Hansen takes the win, followed by Battaglin and Sorensen.

And guess who won the sprint for 5th? Me! Yup. Maybe we should have paced a little harder. What could have been...

Forgot to export. There were no contender GC swapping, but Sorensen moves into 2nd for the time being from time gained in the breakaway.

That's the first week of the Giro! There haven't been too many contender changes to cover in my week 2 preview, but I'm sure there will be in week 3! Tomorrow is the first high mountain finish! See you with the preview and then the stage!

This is arguably the first real and true high mountain top finish. I'll do the best I can!

These BOTD pictures get bring real fast.

Perhaps Purito felt that way too, because on the 3rd to last climb he attacked!

Nibali attacked after him. Uran tried but couldn't.

They caught the break easily, but we were not there. I still had Acevedo and so instead of attacking we sat on Valverde, who was pacing desperately, as he had also missed the cut.

Ten Dam and Pellizotti were in the front from the break, but despite their talent they were no match for those coming from behind.

So eventually it was all neutralized.

Just before the summit Ulissi put in a move that nobody need or wanted to follow.

That's not exactly true. Nieve made a dig but he didn't get more than 10 meters gap.

Tommy D managed to come back on the downhill. Whenever a favorite like Contador stretched it out, he close the gap.

But all that became useless when Valverde attacked with Purito on his wheel! I tucked behind Acevedo and we pushed. This would be selection on the penultimate climb, with very little between it and the final.

It went nowhere, but Nibali attacked again!

Rodriguez responded, and I stuck straight on his wheel!

The chase didn't want to work. it contained Contador, Valverde, Betancur and Uran.

We managed to catch up and it was 3 at the front. Nibali, J-Rod and me. In no time we had a minute!

Valverde was obviously fresher than the others and so he attacked them as we reached the summit of the penultimate climb.

At the bottom of the final climb Purito accelerated again!

I didn't want to follow, and I was lucky when Nibali decided to do the pulling. Valverde had just about reached us when the gap started going out again.

But that didn't last long and Nibali was not a fan of dead weight. He attacked and I didn't follow. I could feel myself slipping. All I could do was stuff in a an energy gel and keep chugging along.

1v1 at the front! The reigning champion and the current leader!

But that wouldn't be it! As they slowed down to play cat and mouse, I found a second win and before I knew it I was back with them! All I wanted to do now was hold on!

They each gave one last dig, and I was slow to react. The gradient was treacherous!

And with constant attacking Purito took stage 8!

I finished just behind. However they called it 17 seconds! That's probably because they gave Nibali the same time even though there was a small gap, which made my gap to Purito count much more. Either way it is a very good result!

Valverde finished 1'05'' down, and then the chase group at 2'13''! Evans once again could not keep up with them and finished farther behind. Some pretty big losses in the GC!

This really helps out my GC! I'm still in 3rd, but I gained time on everyone behind me! And I can be satisfied with that for sure!

Really exciting stage! I was really yo-yoing at the end there. But our work is not done. Tomorrow is another mountain top finish! See you there!

Mountain top finish! Oo goodie!

There's a kind of repetitive annoyance that goes into announcing the info that there was in fact, like a every stage, a morning breakaway.

Pirazzi was the biggest name, and of course he wanted to be responsible for the final stand.

But the peloton was more on the pacing side of things.

A group got a way mid way. 3 guess on how much of an impact the had.

After the break was caught Kiserlovski made the first move, but it wouldn't stick.

On the final climb, favorites wasted no time attacking!

So Janier took up the chase.

They were caught without much trouble by the other teams that helped us. Too many riders missed it for it to be allowed away.

But Betancur put in another violent acceleration, carrying tons of riders with him.

I wasn't one of them, so we had to resort to chasing again, which is fine. I prefer it to wasting energy.

We caught most of it, but 2 alluded us. The biggest 2 enemies unfortunately! Valverde and Purito had a gap!

And eventually I was isolated. Fuglsang was doing the turns at the front for Nibbles. the rest of us just looked at each other.

Finally Nibali attacked with 3 km to go! I couldn't follow , so I waited minute and attacked on my own tempo. No one followed either move. With The lead duo 1'30'' up the road, we were almost out of it.

The chase quickly fell back. Nobody wanted to work for themselves if it meant working for each other. They were at a stalemate.

Up front the pink jersey wiped out Piti! He was heading to yet another dominating win! What amazing form he has!

Valverde finished 30 seconds back. He lost the stage but definitely picked the right attack to follow. That means he was gaining time on me!

I tried my best to limit my losses, finishing 1'14'' back. But losing 44 seconds to my biggest podium enemy is obviously less than ideal.

Bad news for the chasers, the gap got immense after the attacks. 2'40'' is a big loss for anyone trying to do well in 3 weeks. Especially this early.

Good news and bad news on GC.

The bad is that I lost 3rd place to Valverde, and I'm now 15 seconds behind it.

But the good is that the non aggressive riders have lost a lot. It's now almost 5 minutes to 5th place, so I'm pretty secure where I am at least.

Tomorrow is overall pretty flat but features a small hill close to the finish. A favorite wouldn't be expected to make a move there. Maybe I can catch back some surprise time if I feel good. Who knows? Whatever the case, I'll write about it then!

Classified as flat. Little hill at the end, but it may not be that steep.

Insert breakaway picture here.

Kristoff won the intermediate sprint. A sign of things to come?

We brought back the break and just as I had feared, the climb was not steep enough for a move. But Steele was caught at the back!

So since I was in a good position I just followed Orica's train for myself. Meanwhile, FDJ was parallel to us and Cannondale had a dominating lead.

Another fantastic leadout by Viviani and Sagan had a huge lead at 500 meters to go. I was not as fast as these guys, so I just tried to keep up.

Peter Sagan with the easy win on stage 10!

I finished 6th. I really don't care much, but I got a top 10 with using no long term energy so it's just a small bonus.

There were no splits containing climbers, so the GC stays the same.

Tomorrow is another in between stage. Might be tailor made for Sagan again, all depends on how it's raced. See you there!