Dario Cataldo had got a rare chance to ride for himself in the Giro d'Italia but it all came to nothing in yesterday's stage when he lost more than 20 minutes. Today he bounced back with a great showing on the final climb in stage ninth.

Dario Cataldo produced a gusty burst in the final metres to secure eighth place on stage nine at the Giro d’Italia.

The Italian rebounded well from a difficult day on Saturday to jump clear of a group of general classification contenders as the climb kicked up, riding towards a potential fourth place in Sestola.

Cataldo tied up in the final metres and was consumed by the front of the group, including race leader Cadel Evans (BMC Racing), as the race reached an exciting climax.

Salvatore Puccio spent much of the 172-kilometre test in the day’s breakaway as Team Sky continued to push onwards up the road in search of stage wins.

As the final climb kicked up Pieter Weening (Orica-GreenEdge) attacked out of the 14-man move and forged clear. Joined on the road by Davide Malacarne (Europcar) the pair fought it out for the stage win in a track-style sprint.

It was Weening who prevailed, with Domenico Pozzovivo (AG2R-La Mondiale) taking third after attacking late on to put 26 seconds into Evans.

Team Sky had numbers in the front group as the race hit the second-category summit finish, with Sebastian Henao and Kanstantsin Siutsou also finishing on the same time as the GC favourites.

After the stage Sports Director Dario Cioni talked TeamSky.com through the stage and the importance of putting a man up the road.

"We knew it could be a day when the break finally made it to the finish so we were keen to get a rider in the move," he explained. "Edvald (Boasson Hagen) wanted to be in there and we tried with him early on. But it took 50km to get it going and by that time everyone was trying.

"It would have been disappointing to miss it but Salvatore did a really good job to get in there. It wasn’t easy. Dario, Kosta and Sebastian rode really well to be there in the lead group and Dario was a bit unlucky not to take a top five a the finish.

"The team are looking forward to the rest day now. It will allow some of the guys time to continue their recovery after the crash on Thursday and we’ll be back in the mix on Tuesday for the sprint stage."