Team Colombia had a mixed day in the Giro d'Italia. While Fabio Duarte bounced back from yesterday's disappointment and Leonardo Duque showed the colours in the break, Edwin Avila finished outside the time limit.

The much anticipated uphill finish in Sestola brought a huge number of fans to the Giro d’Italia roads, bu not the big GC changes someone could expect, in spite of some tough slopes on the way to the Cimone Mount peak. Two outsider escapees – Pieter Weening (Orica-GreenEDGE) and Davide Malacarne (Team Europcar), came down to sprint for the stage, as the final surrenders of a 14-man break started at km 49, and including Team Colombia’s Leonardo Duque.

Once again, the Escarabajos managed to place a man in the break:

“Our team’s aggressive racing deserves praise and we are confident the grit and tenacity of our riders will pay off, sooner rather than later," Sports Director Valerio Tebaldi said. 

Duque also sounded satisfied with his breakaway effort:

“It wasn’t easy to get clear today, as everybody knew the escape could have chances today, and so the peloton rode really fast for the first 50 km. We tried our move several times, and in the end we got in the break once again. Hats off to Weening for today, but look for us to try again soon.”

Pieter Weening gave Orica-GreenEDGE its third win at the Giro, while Davide Malacarne had to stand with a valuable runner-up spot. Domenico Pozzovivo (Ag2r) got third to the finish after a good attack in the finale; Diego Ulissi was fourth in spite of a bad night, followed by Uran, Kelderman and Cadel Evans, still wearing the Maglia Rosa.

After yesterday’s bad day, Fabio Duarte bounced back on Sunday, holding on with the GC men an taking a top-10 spot on the stage:

“It is very important to immediately react to the bad moment, to show myself and my team that yesterday was just a bad day," he said. "The Giro is still a long way to go, and I believe we will be up there when the big mountains come.”

Unfortunately, there was also bad news for Team Colombia, and it was about Edwin Avila: the two-time Track World Champion finished hors delay, due to the stomach pains that had troubled him in the last few days.

The first ten days of the Giro are now gone, but there is still a whole lot of climbs to face, that means plenty of opportunities for Team Colombia. After the rest day in Modena on Monday, the Giro will get back on the road on Tuesday, moving to North-West in view of another exciting weekend with the top finishes in Oropa (Saturday) and Montecampione(Sunday).