Today's stage of the Giro d'Italia was a big target for Giant-Shimano and Luka Mezgec but like many others the Slovenian sprinter was held up behind a late crash. Having lost his captain, Albert Timmer tried to surprise the sprinters by launching a late attack but he faded back to seventh.

Albert Timmer has finished seventh on stage 10 of the Giro d’Italia today after another crash played its part in deciding the outcome of the stage. With just under one kilometre left to race a touch of wheels saw riders come down near the front of the peloton leaving a small group to fight out the stage win.

Luka Mezgec was coming up into position in the run-in but the crash saw him slam on the brakes to avoid being involved before just squeezing through. This was enough to see him not make the front riders on the fast run in and as such he finished just outside the top 10. Timmer was left on his own at the front and went for a long one but faded to finish seventh.

The 10th stage followed the second rest day of this year’s race and presented the sprinters with another opportunity to fight for the right to add a Giro stage to their palmares. With no mountain points on offer, and many riders keen to have another steady day the break was only a small one, with just two riders making their way off the front at the start of the stage.

This allowed the peloton to cruise along for the first half of the stage, allowing the leaders enough room to keep believing, yet little enough to still be in control. Team Giant-Shimano once again helped to control the pace with the view to bringing Mezgec to the fore at the finish.

With 30km to race the gap was still 3’52″ but this soon fell as teams picked up the pace heading into the only difficulty of the day, a short, non-categorised climb inside the final 10km. Despite a fast pace on the climb and a lined out peloton the team could keep Mezgec out of trouble and following the descent down the other side they could bring him back near the front. However the climb had put several riders out of position and the usual lead-out was not going to be possible.

With the sprint unfolding in the final kilometres, a touch of wheels saw a domino effect as riders piled into one another and behind riders had to take action to avoid adding to the carnage. Timmer, already well positioned in bringing Mezgec up to the front, found himself ahead with several others and seeing that he was on his own for the team he immediately put his head down and tried to catch the others unaware.

The distance to the line proved too much and he faded, being passed by eventual stage winner Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ) and several other sprinters.

“The stage was ideal for us up until the crash at the end and that was it for Luka’s chances of a stage win,” said Team Giant-Shimano coach Addy Engels after the stage.

“Everything was going well until that point. The guys weren’t quite together as they would usually be in the last few kilometres because of the climb late on but Luka, Albert and Georg [Preidler] were all near the front towards the finish. The plan for this scenario was that Luka would follow Albert and we can imagine that the result would have been much different if that had been the case.

“When Albert was on his own he tried to get a jump on the others and this was the right thing to do as if he had waited and sat in the wheels we know that he wouldn’t win the sprint in that company.

“Overall though everyone is well again and in good spirits. You have good and bad luck over a three-week Tour and today was another dose of bad luck for us but we will continue to look ahead and focus on our next goals in this race and keep learning.”

Albert added: “The stage was good for us today, and we did a good job staying calm and focused. The hill in the last 10km was full gas but I managed to stay near the front and then Luka came back onto my wheel with 2.5km to go. He got held up with the crash at 800m to go and I heard from Addy that I was alone.

“I did an all or nothing sprint with 600m to go to try and surprise the sprinters that were left but it didn’t work out. In general the feelings are good at the moment and have been throughout the first week too. I have done my job in a good way for the team so far so I am happy with how things are going.”