With a long  210 km stage starting from Rieti, the Corsa dei Due Mari has reached the Adriatic coast with the finish in Porto Sant'Elpidio. Despite seemingly innocuous height differences, it was just the only climb of the day, the Montelaparo (69km to the finish line), that was the highlight of a stage characterized by heavy rain. 

Under the pressure of Saxo Tinkoff the group broke into three parts, with some GC riders and many sprinters being left behind. The first two groups merged while the third never got back.

 
For Lampre-MERIDA, Sacha Modolo failed to stick with the first groups so it was Maximiliano Richeze who did the final sprint. The Argentine took a good 5th place, behind Sagan, Ciolek, Debusschere and Cort.

"The rain and the cold have made ​​it a very difficult stage, but our riders still wanted to be in the mix," sports director Orlando Maini said. "In the first few kilometers, we tried escape with Manuele Mori, Luka Pibernik and Tsgabu Grmay, but we had no luck.

"Tinkoff-Saxo made a selection at the only possible point. Unfortunately for us Modolo, already suffering from the cold, could not stay in the main group so our efforts were focused on Richeze who was fine and was on the wheel of Sagan. Today the Slovak rider was the best, hard to beat, so the fifth place by Richeze is good."