Robert Kiserlovski defended his 10th place in today's stage to the feared Monte Zoncolan and even gained a lot of time on Ryder Hesjedal who is ahead of him in the overall standings. Despite reaching the pre-race target of a top 10 finish, his Trek team finds it hard to forget about the Stelvio incident that allowed Hesjedal to take time on their Croatian champion.

It was the last mountain stage for the Giro d’Italia and Trek Factory Racing made its presence felt in the race once again as Danilo Hondo and Riccardo Zoidl snuck into the day’s breakaway of 20 riders that succeeded to contest the stage win. However, a plan in theory needs to be executed on the road and today Zoidl did not have the same legs as yesterday’s uphill time trial where he finished 13th.  It appeared a perfect scenario, but on the infamous Monte Zoncolan Riccardo faded to finsih in 13th while Michael Rogers (Tinkoff-Saxo) climbed to the stage victory.

“I said to the boys that the last three days our plan has been perfect, we have a victory to show, and today we had Riccardo [Zoidl] and Danilo [Hondo] in the breakaway which is what we wanted," sports director Adriano Baffi said. "It was unlucky that Riccardo was not on a good day. He gave his all; right now he is on the bus and he is completely empty.

"We did what we could play today, and the result was not what we wanted, but we played. Tomorrow is the last day where we can give the final conclusion to our Giro, but right now I can say that for me it is very, very positive.”

As the breakaway once again fought for the stage win, the GC battle raged one final time behind. Robert Kiserlovski was the first to launch an attack from the maglia rosa group on the Zoncolan. It was a short-lived move as the Quintana group caught him back, eventually distancing Kiserlovski who went on to finish the climb solo – as did most on the absurdly steep slope – to finish in 26th place.

Although he gained almost more than 90 seconds to 9th placed Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Sharp) it was not enought to advance him in the standings - but it was more than enough to verify his 10th place in the overall.

“Robert wanted to show to himself one last time today – that he is in good condition to still fight on the last hard stage of the Giro," Baffi said. "It was unlucky that we had the story of the Stelvio or he could be 8th or 9th, but okay we stop this story now. He confirmed today that he is there, he won some seconds to [Ryder] Hesjedal and [Cadel] Evans so I believe for the second part of his season he is starting with a good morale.”

Tomorrow’s ceremoniously flat race is one more chance for Giacomo Nizzolo and Trek Factory Racing to finally win a sprint stage after three times finishing runner-up. The team has enjoyed a fruitful Giro thus far, but no one is celebrating until the final line is crossed in Trieste tomorrow.

“The plan on the table for tomorrow looks easy," Baffi said. "Normally the first part it is controlled for the celebration of the pink jersey. Then on the circuit normally it ends in a sprint. So if this all goes to plan, I think that Giacomo has more chances than the other days.”

“When you consider the stage win, the 10th place of Robert - and the [mountain classification] jersey is also something - with the fact we have always been a presence in the race, in the breakaway, with many top 5 and top 10 finishes, we can consider the Giro a success. But our race in not over – it ends at the finish line tomorrow in Trieste," manager Luca Guercilena said.