Domenico Pozzovivo was one of the riders to get dropped by Nairo Quintana on the descent from the Stevio in today's queen stage of the Giro d'Italia but the Italian climber had no excuses. Having heard nothing about a possible neutralization, he did the descent as fast as he could.

Domenico Pozzovivo saw his hopes of an overall win in the Giro d'Italia get a signicant knock in today's queen stage of the Giro d'Italia when he lost almost four minutes to Nairo Quintana. Like most other GC contenders, the tiny Italian was dropped by the Colombian on the Stelvio descent.

However, Pozzovivo was not among those criticizing the Giro organizers. His team car had told him nothing about a potential neutralization and he openly admitted that Quintana had been a better descender.

"It was an extremely hard race," he said. "Neutralization? Red flags? Motos? In the race, I knew nothing about that. We did out race on the descent and it all happened on the final climb. I went down as fast as I could.”

"It was a difficult stage for me because of the rain. I felt much better on the climbs. In the final part, I  waited until the last two kilometers to attack to avoid getting trapped on the flat parts near the end. I’m only two minutes from the 2nd place overall. We are all very close in standings and everything is still possible.”

“That was an extremely difficult stage that will affect the already tired bodies after two racing weeks," sports director Laurent Biondi said. "The team did a very good stage and our riders demonstrated how courageous and determined they are. We have shown a great collective spirit since the start of the Giro and the race is not finished yet, there are still many things to do.”