So close, yet so far. Marco Canola (Bardiani-CSF) came within just 200 metres of claiming his first ever Giro d’Italia stage win yesterday, which would have sealed the second consecutive win for his team.

The 24-year-old Italian led the peloton around the penultimate corner of the 203 km stage between Cosenza and Matera when Argos-Shimano’s Luka Mezgec crashed on a greasy white line, and brought the rest of the bunch to an immediate standstill.

Appreciating that he was the only rider unaffected by the crash behind him and with only a little more than a kilometre to ride, Canola made a dash for the finish line, but was caught by Mezgec’s teammate, John Degenkolb, before he could make it to the line and take home the win.

"I was about to realise a dream and I almost made it,” Canola told Gazzetta dello Sport after the stage. “I was in front to help the team out of the penultimate corner when I heard the crash behind me. So I put my head down and gave it everything. I thought I had it made it but the last few metres before the finish line proved lethal. It is a pity because we had a great race as a team, but we’ll definitely try again in the coming days.”

With several of the race’s fastest sprinters left behind on the 4th category Montescaglioso 20 km from the line the ProContinental team in the distinct green jerseys assumed control of the peloton in the final kilometres, working to deliver Sacha Modolo for the sprint.

Having been denied a chance to sprint, and with his teammate narrowly missing out, Modolo was less than impressed with the way the stage finish ended.

“I’m very angry for what happened,” he said. “Today was a really suitable finish for me and I believed I could get a great result. With my teammates we worked very well for the sprint but the crash stopped our dreams. Tomorrow [Tuesday] there’ll be a bunch sprint but I think that Cavendish will be too strong on a flat finish,” Modolo added. “However I hope to have better luck and achieve a good result.”�€�