Michele Scarponi, like most of his unfortunate team-mates from Astana, his the deck in the mass-crash in the dramatic finale of Giro d’Italia sixth stage yesterday. Even though the Kazakh squad co-captain didn’t manage to re-join a strong chasing group led by Movistar and Omega Pharma-Quick Step, he time trialed for the remaining 10 kilometers of Montecassino ascent to limit his losses, unaware that several riders including Cadel Evans (BMC) survived the incident unscathed to gain very significant advantage.

Yesterday’s mass-crash at the bottom of Montecassino climb saw most of team leaders, including the likes of Nairo Quintana, Rigoberto Uran (Omega Pharma-Quick Step), Rafał Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo), Fabio Aru (Astana), Wilco Kelderman (Belkin) Domenico Pozzovivo (Ag2R La Mondiale) or Ivan Basso (Cannondale) quickly regrouping their forces after hitting the deck to limit their losses to 49 seconds to Evans and maglia rosa Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEDGE), for others the incident effectively ended their general classification ambitions.

While Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha), Nicolas Roche (Tinkoff-Saxo), Julian Arredondo (Trek Factory Racing) or Steven Kruijswijk (Belkin) are considered the biggest loosers of yesterday’s stage alongside pre-race overall classification contenders, Scarponi has to be placed somewhere in between, losing 1:37 to Australian veteran but still keeping genuine chances for a good result in the three-week event.

After crossing the finish line, the 34-year old Italian, apparently very pleased with his condition, couldn’t hide his disappointment both because of the time loss and painful injuries suffered in the crash. He also admitted that he wasn’t aware that the group of riders led by BMC survived the incident unscathed and went clear with Matthews and Evans on board.

"I'm suffering, both because of the time loss and the crash, I'm upset," Scarponi told reporters after descending the eight-kilometre final climb in a team car. "I took a good wallop when I landed during that crash at the roundabout, and I slid a long, long way."

"BMC attacked when we crashed? I don't know what they did. I just know that I did a time trial of 15km to try and get back on afterwards," he said.

While Scarponi struggled hard to limit his losses, young Aru – groomed into his future leadership role during this year’s Giro d’Italia edition, was Astana’s best finisher in yesterday’s stage, crossing the line tenth from the group of Uran and Quintana and moving to eight place in the general classification.

"I'm upset both for the pain I'll feel in the upcoming days and for the time I've lost," Scarponi said. "Certainly, to lose all this time to strong riders is not a good thing, it's a real shame, but the Giro is still long."