The peloton fought a steady headwind on its longest stage of the Giro d'Italia Friday, taking nearly seven-and-a-half hours to cover the 264 kilometers.

Diego Ulissi (Lampre-Merida) took the win ahead of Juan Jose Lobato (Movistar Team) and Simon Gerrans (ORICA-GreenEDGE). The BMC Racing Team's best finisher was Philippe Gilbert, in 13th place.

"We controlled at the end with first Zabel and then the whole team," he said. "We were working really good and then my chain came off with 1400m to go when I hit a hole in the road. I lost a lot of positions. Stefan [Küng] saw it and he waited for me. We tried to come back but so close to the finish it was not possible. I made it to the first positions but I had already done my sprint. It is very disappointing but I cannot blame anyone. Things like this happens. It is bad luck."

Race leader Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) started and finished the race despite separating his shoulder in a crash at the finish line Thursday. Three BMC Racing Team riders remain in the top 20 heading into the first major mountain stage of the three-week race. Damiano Caruso is 11th at 1:20 off the lead, Amaël Moinard is 15th at 1:46 and Darwin Atapuma is 16th at 1:49.