Fabio Aru (Astana) fought desperately to limit his losses in the queen stage of the Giro d'Italia. However, he still slipped to third behind teammate Mikel Landa who won the stage, and now only leads Andrey Amador by 56 seconds.

“I suffered for 40km and I could have lost 20 minutes,” he told Rai at the finish. “It honestly wasn’t one of the best days of my career. I suffered a lot and I rode more with my head than my legs. I fought all the way to the line so that I didn’t lose everything.

“Mikel was feeling good and so it was right he got to play his cards. He won the stage and if someone is feeling better than you, team leader orders go by the way. That’s only fair."