Winner Anacona was one of five riders who almost denied the sprinters the chance to sprint for the win in today's seventh stage of the Giro d'Italia. As they started to attack each other, it all came to nothing and the Colombian regretted the lack of cooperation in the finale.

With several sprint teams working together, it seemed that today's stage of the Giro d'Italia was destined to end in a bunch sprint but the five-rider break proved to be harder to catch than initially thought. Benefiting from a lumpy terrain in the finale, the escapees managed to extend their advantage to more than 5 minutes with less than 50km to go.

Inside the final 10km, however, they started to attack each other and that spelled the end for the escapees. The fast-moving peloton swallowed them up with 3km to go, setting the scene for a bunch sprint.

Winner Anacona was one of the early escapees and he regretted the lost opportunity.

"It took a lot of effort to get away," he said. "Luckily we worked well together and gained a good advantage. The wind in the finale and the high speed helped us resist the peloton and it's a shame that our good cooperation was destroyed. If we had worked together just a little longer, we could have decided the stage.

"I'm glad to have showed the colors of the team. I believed in my chances until the end and will try again.