Until today, the Giro d'Italia had only brough satisfaction for Diego Ulissi but today the good luck came to an end for the double stage winner. Having gone down in a crash on the first descent, the Italian was unable to breathe properly and fell out of the top 10 after getting dropped on the final climb.

Diego Ulissi may have ruled out going for the GC in the Giro d'Italia but going into today's stage 11, he was still sitting comfortably in 7th. If he had started to consider targeting the overall standings, however, he can now put those doubts to rest after an unfortunate crash caused him to lose more than 4 minutes.

With riders like Salvatore Puccio and Luke Durbridge, Ulissi went down in a tumble on the first descent and hurt his knee and back. Przemyslaw Niemiec and Manuele Mori helped him rejoin the peloton but when the going got tough on the final climb, the back pain meant that he was unable to breathe properly. As a consequence, he fell off the pace and dropped to 21st in the overall standings.

"Some riders made a mistake in a turn on the descent and it was inevitable for the next riders to crash," he said. "I got a blow to my knee and had pain in by back and when we started to climb, I could breathe properly.

"Obviously, I'm disappointed. I hope to recover quickly in order to continue to do well in a Giro d'Italia which until now had only given me satisfaction."

With Ulissi out of the game, it was left to Damiano Cunego to defend the Lampre colours. The Italian finished with the group of favourites but failed to mix it up with the best in the sprint for second.

"Today the legs were good," he said. "I manged to avoid the crash that involved Diego. "I easily passed the climb but in the sprint I didn't find the gap to be among the best in the maglia rosa group."