Planaval marks the return of mountains to the Giro, albeit just the 1 today. Will the start of the stage prove too easy heading into the final climb, or will Planaval be enough to cause some serious gaps?
All climbers come into this stage with time to gain, with one exception. Taylor Phinney is sitting pretty in pink, and if he is to beaten, surely Madrazo, Spilak and the rest have to start gaining time on him today?
It looked at one point that the first attacks of the day would actually succeed.
3 riders had a small lead: Christophe Riblon Michal Kwiatkowski Santo Anza
6 more chased them, and had built up over a minute and a half on the peloton.
Alex Howes Yonathan Monsalve Philip Deignan Aleksandr Dyachenko Tim Dees Thomas De Gendt
But then a lot more counter moves came from the peloton, and the subsequent chase wiped out the chasing 6 man group. The first 3 would stay clear, but only 2 more were left to chase after them.
Moris Possoni Tim Kennaugh
So, one day after losing his long held lead in the King of the Mountains competition, Christophe Riblon is off in the break to try to claim it back. Trailing by 18 points though, he will need the breakaway to take the stage to stand a chance of winning the jersey back in one stage.
Tim Kennaugh challenges Riblon on the climbs, but the Frenchman will win both Cat 4s to take his total to 60 - 8 behind König.
Wikipedia allowed the breakaways lead to reach 8 minutes before starting to chase, and it lies at around 6 minutes as the break approach the foot of the climb to Planaval - 17km to the line.
The peloton still have 21km to climb, and it looks like we are set for a thrilling finale as already there are attacks - and first to go are Riccardo Ricco and Emanuele Sella.
Petar Panayotov, Tyler Brandt, Gianluca Brambilla, Manuel Lloret, Paolo Scarponi, and Sergio Luis Henao Montoya also look to follow.
But Wikipedia are having none of it. 20km to go now.
Daniel Navarro and Vitor Rodrigues were next and they got a small gap - at least until Emanuele Sella launched again.
Many of the same attackers who followed Ricco now follow Sella - although Ricco holds back this time. Sella cannot get clear, but another Italian can - Brambilla.
Into the final 11km the road really starts to steepen. Sergio Luis Henao Montoya identifies this, and surges forward in a powerful move.
Riblon has made his bid for glory up front, chased by Kennaugh. They are around 4 minutes clear of the peloton still.
Henao was not followed - which is ideal for him, as it seems the process of counterattacks tends to neutralise any sort of attack. He rides past Brambilla, and presses on.
Sella is not done though - and his next move triggers a response from Angel Madrazo. The Spaniard desperately needs time on Phinney.
Markus Fothen, Nico Keinath, Riccardo Ricco and Yuri Trofimov try to respond - but these moves don't get a gap.
They do reduce the peloton to just 19 riders though - almost isolating Phinney. The most notable names dropped are Thomas Faiers and Leopold König.
Robert Kiserlovski now appears to take on the domestique role for Phinney! Well, Hollister are an American team afterall... David López Garcia is riding strong today in support of his team leader, and moves forward.
All change back in the breakaway - now it is Moris Possoni who leads the race.
Sergio Luis Henao Montoya is still clear of the peloton, and starts to mop up the breakaway, while Kiserlovski is now attacking - and being followed by Simon Spilak!
Just 16 remain in the group, with Manuel Lloret and Bernhard Kohl the latest to be dropped. Yuri Trofimov is still fighting hard at the back, in his best Mountains performance to date.
Spilak's attack forces Phinney to chase - and Ricco looks to counter.
Inside the final 3km and Possoni still leads, but has got Henao hot on his heels.
Angel Madrazo tries another attack.
But Taylor Phinney is riding very strongly, and if anything, looks the strongest! He hits the front in a show of force by the Maglia Rosa.
Meanwhile Henao has taken the lead.
Only 5 riders were able to follow Phinney's pace! Ricco, Madrazo, Spilak, López Garcia and Nibali.
The final kilometre nears, and Henao is already there! Finally he has proven that a gap is possible on a mountain stage, as he looks for both a stage win and a chance of moving into the Top 10.
No time for a celebration, as Sergio Luis Henao Montoya takes the stage win for Milka!
Riccardo Ricco sprints to 2nd place, 35 seconds later, as Possoni is just caught before claiming a time bonus position.
Angel Madrazo takes 3rd, but only gaining 8 seconds on Taylor Phinney is surely a failure at this stage.
David López Garcia finally cracked in the final kilometre, and Peter Velits is close enough to him to receive the Spaniard's time.
Markus Fothen desperately tried to close the gap late on ... and managed it to at least finish close enough to Velits. Lopez Garcia finished 47 seconds down - and that is somewhat fortuitously spread all the way back to the next group - led by Gianpaolo Caruso.
Emanuele Sella disappoints today and falls below Henao in GC. A great day for Yuri Trofimov and Nico Keinath's Top 10 hopes to finish in this group today - while John-Lee Augustyn has quietly continued an impressive Giro to consolidate a Top 15 GC position after Pendleton's duo faltered today.
A poor finish from Ryan Eastman saw him lose a minute on most of his rivals for those 10th-15th GC positions.
1
Sergio Luis Henao Montoya
Milka - AVG
4h59'55
2
Riccardo Ricco
Team Bacardi
+ 35
3
Angel Madrazo
Santander
s.t.
4
Simon Spilak
Aker - MOT
s.t.
5
Taylor Phinney
Wikipedia
s.t.
6
Moris Possoni
Cisco Cycling Team
s.t.
7
Vincenzo Nibali
UBS - BMC
s.t.
8
David López Garcia
Santander
+ 47
9
Peter Velits
Project 1t4i
s.t.
10
Markus Fothen
Festina-Canal+
s.t.
11
Gianpaolo Caruso
Cisco Cycling Team
s.t.
12
Romain Sicard
Pearl Adidas
s.t.
13
Yuri Trofimov
Koenigsegg
s.t.
14
Robert Kiserlovski
Hollister Pro Cycling
s.t.
15
Nico Keinath
Team B&O
s.t.
16
John-Lee Augustyn
Aker - MOT
s.t.
17
Emanuele Sella
Simply Red Bull
s.t.
18
Ryan Eastman
Heineken presented by California Giant Berry Farms
+ 1'44
19
Bernhard Kohl
Pendleton's
+ 1'58
20
Christophe Riblon
UBS - BMC
+ 2'26
21
Michal Kwiatkowski
Team B&O
+ 2'35
22
Santo Anza
Koenigsegg
s.t.
23
Tim Kennaugh
Pendleton's
+ 3'47
24
Manuel Lloret
Lotto - Cervelo
s.t.
25
Christoph Mai
Wikipedia
+ 4'04
26
Paolo Scarponi
Wiggle Professional Cycling Team
+ 5'13
27
Thomas Faiers
Pendleton's
s.t.
28
Gianluca Brambilla
Pro Team Venchi - Sugoi
s.t.
29
Fabio Duarte
Pro Team Venchi - Sugoi
s.t.
30
Thibaut Pinot
Wikipedia
s.t.
31
Daniel Navarro
Team Bacardi
s.t.
32
Vitor Rodrigues
Hollister Pro Cycling
s.t.
33
Leopold König
Milka - AVG
s.t.
34
Petar Panayotov
Pearl Adidas
s.t.
35
Martin Hacecký
Team B&O
s.t.
36
Aleksandr Efimkin
Cisco Cycling Team
s.t.
37
Yevgeni Nepomnyachsniy
Milka - AVG
s.t.
38
Chris Anker Sørensen
Festina-Canal+
+ 6'07
39
Teodoro Costagli
Wiggle Professional Cycling Team
s.t.
40
Aleksandr Dyachenko
Cisco Cycling Team
s.t.
41
Tim Dees
Festina-Canal+
s.t.
42
Matea Kvasina
Vesuvio - Accumalux
s.t.
43
Valerio Agnoli
Pro Team Venchi - Sugoi
+ 7'29
44
Ioannis Tamouridis
Festina-Canal+
s.t.
45
Marco Osella
Cisco Cycling Team
+ 7'46
46
Richard Ochoa Quintero
Hollister Pro Cycling
+ 8'18
47
Kristjan Koren
Heineken presented by California Giant Berry Farms
+ 8'31
48
Ion Izagirre
Hollister Pro Cycling
s.t.
49
Johannes Frohlinger
Project 1t4i
s.t.
50
Tyler Brandt
Heineken presented by California Giant Berry Farms
+ 8'46
51
Thomas Peterson
Heineken presented by California Giant Berry Farms
Christophe Riblon
Michal Kwiatkowski
Santo Anza
Alex Howes
Yonathan Monsalve
Philip Deignan
Aleksandr Dyachenko
Tim Dees
Thomas De Gendt
Tim Kennaugh
