Damiano Caruso held onto his seventh place overall for the BMC Racing Team at the Giro d'Italia by finishing eighth on Tuesday's major mountain stage in the Alps.

Brent Bookwalter was in an early breakaway for the BMC Racing Team in the 177-kilometer race that crested five climbs, including the famed ascent of the Passo del Mortirolo. After Bookwalter's group was brought back, Caruso tried to remain in contact with a rapidly dwindling peloton.

"It was just like the other day – it was hard, very hard, and I was time trialing my way when I was alone," Caruso said. "It was nice to have good help from my teammates, especially before the Mortirolo."

Mikel Landa (Astana Pro Team) soloed to win his second consecutive stage to climb into second overall behind Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo), who increased his overall lead to more than four minutes with five stages to go.

Caruso is 9:52 behind and not giving up hope of moving further up the standings.

"I will keep trying, but the gaps are starting to get big on the general classification," he said. "And there are several more hard days to come."

BMC Racing Team's Amaël Moinard continued his move up the standings, finishing 20th, to move into 15th overall. Teammate Darwin Atapuma is also in the top 20, in 18th place.