"We knew that Nicholas was in great shape but he rode an excellent finale with great timing where he went away with great force to cross the finish line alone. The whole team went really well, and we knew that we didn’t have to take any responsibility in the peloton. This victory gives us an ideal start. We believed in the victory and I definitely don’t think that our boys are done trying", said an extremely satisfied sports director, Fabrizio Guidi. 

The stage started with Alex Rasmussen (Garmin-Sharp), Greg Henderson (Lotto-Belisol) and Francisco Javier Aramendia (Caja Rural) who tried their luck in a breakaway on todays 176,8 km long stage. They managed to get a significant gap of 13 minutes until the peloton started to realise the danger. Even though it looked like the breakaway could go all the way at some point, they were reeled in quite quickly when the peloton started chasing.

On the last climb Moviestar set a high pace which several pre-race outsiders were unable to follow. Both Sergio Henao (Sky) and Samuel Sanches (Euskatel) cracked early on the climb and lost several minutes. Nibali lost 14 seconds to Roche together with the other race favourites but since Janez Brajkovic was unable to follow the pace he takes the red jersey from his teammate, now only 8 seconds in front of Roche.