We're finally starting in sunny Italy, and 84 riders are more or less excited what this unpredictable race brings.
The bookmakers favour Ginanni, Cobo and di Maggio, denying the big impact the hard course is discussed to have on the Venchi leader.
With the start still in sight, we get our first attacker Salvatore Puccio.
Anacona Swift-Metcalfe van der Sande La Lavandier Pietropolli Flaksis McConvey
join him.
They are reeled in by a combined effort from Vespa, Venchi and Pirelli.
That doesn't demotivate the previous attackers, as all but Puccio break free again. Sadly for Unicredit, their advantage in numbers was short-lived.
The established break of 7 crosses a bridge, but the Peloton doesn't let them too far away.
The gap hovers around 1 minute.
Daniele Pietropolli uses the confusion in the bunch to attack, with Elia Viviani joining him.
Both are not known for their puncheur abilities, and again, they're brought back rather coincidentally by a slow peloton.
But now for more serious racing, it's Matthew Busche crossing the finish line for the first time, and he has a significant gap.
Pirelli eases the pressure for Roche, and several other teams tell their riders to do so as well. Grau Appleby Casar
are on the pursuit, although Busche already has 3 minutes on the pack!
The three chasers are working together pretty well, and eventually, they catch the lonely man Busche.
In the meantime, Johan Vansummeren
tries to get up to the front, and it takes him 20 kilometres to do so.
The front five are at the finish again, and the brutality of this climb can be easily seen, as the peloton goes under the 1k to go mark with a gap of a full 5 minutes.
Speaking of the peloton, it has decreased in size a lot. 42 riders are still present, with Mandri Salerno
surprisingly dropped by Vespa's high tempo.
To Ferrari's despair, Salerno later falls and has to abandon.
Rain now starts to fall, which makes the day for many riders even worse.
The remaining 20-some riders are streched out far, but with 50k to go, there's still 4:35 to make up on some strong guys!
With Mandri out the back, Cyclevox hope for Casar up front, but disaster strikes for them when Casar falls on a slippery downhill!
We take a quick look back, and to everyone's surprise, it's di Maggio Roche
doing the work.
Obviously, the chase burned most domestiques, and now it's the leader's task to miracously take back 3:30 with 30 kilometres of racing left.
There's about half an hour still to go, and the front group breaks apart!
The situation looks like this
Grau
0:45 Appleby Busche
1:25 Vansummeren
3:15 Ginanni di Maggio Roche Cobo, de la Fuente Flügel Weening Kolobnev Froome Casar Vanendert, Gautier
So we have a favourite's group forming, with noone noticeably missing out.
But the lack of domestiques here hinders the chase.
We see attacks all the way, but there's neither a split forming nor does it help catching the leaders!
Grau passes the 10k sign, and nothing has changed. The favourites are still constantly attacking each other without effect, and they are no less than 2 minutes back!
And he does it! Jordi Grau takes a huge win for UniCredit here!
Appleby and Busche still lead the favourites by 20 seconds, but will they hold on?
No, Francesco Ginanni flies!
Appleby is already swallowed up. Busche still tries to hold on, but it's close!
And Ginanni takes the second place. Busche keeps his podium spot just in front of team mate Roche.
Cobo, Vanendert and de la Fuente follow, and the course proved slightly too hard for pure puncheurs Flügel and di Maggio, finishing 8th and 9th respectively.
Weening punches an empty Appleby out of the Top 10, and it's a somewhat disappointing result for Kolobnev and Froome.
