Diego Ulissi proved that he is currently the man of the moment when he took a fabulous win in the first big mountain stage of the Giro d'Italia. The result elevates him into 6th overall but he insists that he is not yet ready to ride for GC.

After a very disapptointing Ardennes campaign, Diego Ulissi arrived at the Giro d'Italia with the firm intention of picking up as many stage wins of possible. After winning today's first mountain stage, he has already taken two in just 8 days of racing and is clearly in excellent condition. 

Again it was hit excellent puncheur skills that allowed him to excel in today's stage but to get the chance to contest the finish on a climb that suited him well, he had to overcome the very steep Carpegna ascent that is a real mountain for the pure climbers. He dug deep to make it over with the best at the tail end of the group and finally recovered to launch his fantastic sprint in the finale.

"I wouldn’t say this is a better quality win than the one in Viggiano because that was a hard stage with wind and rain, and you had to have a lot of strength in the finale," he said. "Today, it was more about having resistance because the Carpegna was tough. I was the last one over the summit in the group of favourites and I was glad there was a long descent because it gave me a chance to catch my breath. I’d seen on Google maps that the last climb went up almost in steps, with chances to recover in between, although I knew the last 700 metres were very tough."

Ulissi is now 6th in the overall standings but he rules out that he will contest the GC.

"It’s quite unlikely right now. In the future, I don’t know, maybe my physical characteristics will change and I’ll manage to be competitive over three weeks on tough climbs," he said. "But the fact is that [Damiano] Cunego and [Przemyslaw] Niemiec were our captains for the general classification and now ... I don’t know.

"I’ve already won two stages and I’ll try to stay up there but I put in a huge effort just to stay in contact on the Carpegna today. I’ll take it day by day. We’ll see."

As a great one-day rider, Ulissi is obviously a possible captain for the Italian world championships team. He would love to be part of the action in Ponferrada in September but still hasn't seen the course.

"As an Italian, I’m already thinking about it. The Worlds are the most important event, they wrap up the whole season," he said. "I think I’ll go to see the course in Ponferrada in June after the Italian championships, and I’ll see if it’s suited to my characteristics."