Leopold König continued his strong Giro d'Italia campaign as he moved up to fifth place overall after stage 15. The Czech rider enjoyed great fan support on the imposing climb to Madonna di Campiglio, making his way into an elite front group before finishing seventh across the line.

The 27-year-old climber finished exactly one minute behind stage winner Mikel Landa (Astana), but his performance was enough to ensure he moved into the top five overall heading into the second rest day.

Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) continued his staunch defence of the maglia rosa, taking third on the summit finish, and now holds an advantage of 2:35 over Fabio Aru (Astana). König sits 6:36 back after a gruelling two weeks of action.

Kanstantsin Siutsou rode well in the breakaway as Team Sky looked to ride on the front foot once again following Vasil Kiryienka's time trial victory on Saturday. Siutsou looked strong in a group of four, but with the peloton powering across the 165km test, the gap was never enough to provide a foundation for victory.

"I'm really happy that it worked out for me today. I'm just trying to get every second back from the stupid crash we had and the two-minute time loss. I just hope that it's not going to be the difference in Milan," König told Europsport.

Mikel Nieve was the next Team Sky rider across the line, 18th on the stage, while Elia Viviani held on in the mountains to carry the red jersey ahead of the second rest day.

Richie Porte continued to struggle following his crash on Friday and lost more time on one of the race's toughest stages, slipping back on the day's penultimate climb of the Passo Daone.

With the group of leaders in sight, Siutsou eventually dropped back with 20km to go, slotting in alongside his team-mate König ahead of the finale.

Contador found himself isolated on the approach to the final climb but was still able to follow when the attacks fired with 2.8km to go.