Rigoberto Uran (Sky) benefited from a very impressive Sky team to take a solo win in the first big mountaintop finish of this year's Giro d'Italia as he held off his compatriot Carlos Betancur (Ag2r). Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) finished third and took 12 bonus seconds on the day to extend his lead to Cadel Evans (BMC) to 41 seconds while his most feared rivals Bradley Wiggins (Sky) and Michele Scarponi (Lampre) both lost time.

Sky put in a massive display of strength in today's first mountain stage in the Giro d'Italia and on the final climb the rider to benefit from their huge amount of work was Rigorberto Uran. The Colombian put in a solo attack and while the other favourites had almost all been isolated, he managed to build up a gap of more than 30 seconds to take a convincing win.

Behind the lone Colombian, the battle for the overall win heated up. As soon as they hit the steep part of the climb to the finish in Altopiano del Montasio, the peloton exploded. The first to attack was Rafal Majka (Saxo-Tinkoff) but a hugely ambitious Michele Scarponi made sure that his temmate Przemyslaw Niemiec closed the gap. The Pole continued to set a steady pace as riders struggled to hold on.

The group of favourites now only consisted of race leader Vincenzo Nibali, Bradley Wiggins, Cadel Evans, Scarponi, Niemiec, Mauro Santambrogio (Vini Fantini), Domenico Pozzovivo (Ag2r), Carlos Betancur (Ag2r), Robert Kiserlovski (Radioshack), Benat Intxausti (Movistar), Yury Trofimov (Katusha) Majka and Robert Gesink (Blanco). The next to attack was Intxausti but his move was also a short-lived one.

Moments later Pozzovivo upped the pace and the group behind exploded. Gesink, Trofimov and Intxausti were the first to lose contact and moments later the big pre-race favourite Wiggins also fell off on the steep slopes. Unable to hold the wheel of Pozzovivo, Nibali had to let the Italian go and the Ag2r rider was now in lone pursuit of Uran.

Nibali set a hard pace in the group and that proved costly for Scarponi who was the next to drop off. Actually, Nibali drew clear a small 4-rider group consisting of the Astana leader himself, Majka, Kiserlovski and Betancur.

Behind Wiggins tried to pace himself and limit his losses while Niemiec had now dropped back to assist Scarponi. Evans fought hard to get back a little behind the Nibali group and he showed plenty of grit by clawing his way back onto the wheel of his nearest rival as soon as the road started to flatten somewhat out. The Australian went straight to the front to start chasing while Santambrogio also caught up with the group.

The hard pace by Evans saw the group catch back Pozzovivo with 1,5km to go but 200m later it was the Italian's teammate Betancur who accelerated off the front in pursuit of his compatriot Uran. He quickly got a big gap while Evans continued to set the pace behind.

Inside the final kilometer, Nibali accelerated but just in that moment his chain came off. He managed to save the situation and rejoin the group and moments later he once again attacked. Evans glued himself to his wheel with Majka and Santambrogio while Kiserlovski and Pozzovivo were both unable to keep up.

Up ahead nobody was able to catch Uran who crossed the line to take a huge solo win 20 seconds ahead of Betancur. 11 seconds later Nibali held off Santambrogio and Evans in the sprint for third to pick up 8 bonus seconds. As he had already taken 4 in the last intermediate sprint, he extended his lead to Evans to 41 seconds.

Pozzovivo had clawed himself back to finish in the Nibali group while Kiserlovski and Intxausti both finished alone a little later. Wiggins finished in 10th 37 seconds behind the Nibali group and once again lost time to his most dangerous rivals. Niemiec, Scarponi and Trofimov finished even further behind while Gesink followed a little later in 14th.

Uran's victory moves him into third 2.04 behind Nibali and 1 second ahead of his team captain Wiggins. That certainly puts the captaincy role in the British team into doubt and it is very likely that they will now continue with a two-pronged attack.

The race continues tomorrow with another uphill finish. The category 2 climb to the finish in Vajont is, however, not steep enough to make any real selection and it appears to be a stage for a breakaway.

13 riders form the day's early move

The 167km stage from Cordenons to Altopiano del Montasio was the first uphill finish in the Giro and so a big battle for seconds was on the cards. It was, however, not unlikely that a break could make it all the way to the finish and so the riders were off to a very aggressive start.

The first riders to get a substantial gap on the peloton were Fabio Felline (Androni), Giairo Ermeti (Androni), Rob Ruijgh (Vacansoleil) and Wilson Marentes (Colombia). They were, however, brought back after a chase from some of the teams who had missed the move and instead 13 riders set off.

David Millar (Garmin), Thomas Dekker (Garmin), Jackson Rodriguez (Androni), Maarten Tjallingii (Blanco), Elia Viviani (Cannondale), Pavel Brutt (Katusha), Kenny Dehaes (Lotto), Serge Pauwels (Omega Pharma-Quick Step), Yaroslav Popovych (Radioshack), Tiago Machado (Radioshack), Daniele Bennati (Saxo-Tinkoff), Pim Ligthart (Vacansoleil) and Oscar Gatto (Vini Fantini) formed the day's early move and were quickly allowed to build up a gap which reached more than 8 minutes when they hit the bottom of the day's first category 1 climb. Dmitriy Gruzdev (Astana) had much done of the early pace-setting and after a short effort by Fabio Au, Alessandro Vanotti hit the front on the lower slopes of the climb.

The break splits up

Up ahead the group started to split with Millar, Ligthart, Dehaes, Bennati all dropping off as Popovych set a hard pace to set up teammate Machado for the win. With 56km to go Rodriguez attacked just when Machado was back to speak to his director and the Venezuelan set off on his own. Behind the group splintered but Machado managed to claw himself back to Gatto and Pauwels who were the nearest chasers of Rodriguez.

In the peloton Sky showed their intentions and put Danny Pate and Xabier Zandio on the front. The bunch immediately fell into pieces as riders fell off the back. Pate finished his work a little later while Zandio managed to reduce the front group to only around 30 riders.

Hesjedal drops off

Some big names also started to drop off and the first of those was defending champion Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin). Joined by teammate Tom Danielson he fought to limit his losses but fell out of GC contention at the day's end. Steven Kruijswijk, best young rider Wilco Kelderman (Blanco) and Sergio Henao (Sky) also had to let the group go while Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel) aalso lost contact.

The Androni duo of Diego Rosa and Franco Pellizotti attacked and started to catch riders from the day's early breakaway. Meanwhile, Siutsou was not at the head of the peloton which now only consisted of Siutsou, Cataldo, Wiggins, Uran, Mourey, Nibali, Kangert, Agnoli, Damiano Caruso Scarponi, Niemiec, Evans, Majka, Pozzovivo, Betancur, Kiserlovski, Santambrogio, Gesink, Intxausti, Capecchi and Trofimov.

Rodriguez crested the summit 19 seconds ahead of Machado who was now in lone pursuit while Pauwels and Gatto were now more than a minute behind. The peloton followed at 3.35.

Astana hits the front

Over the top Agnoli and Nibali went to the front to safely negotiate the very tricky descent but on the dry roads they were unable to put Wiggins under pressure and the Brit was always well-placed near the front of the group. Pellizotti crashed on the descent but was quickly back on his bike and continued his chase of his teammate Rodriguez.

Having finished the descent, the peloton almost came to a standstill and this allowed Rodriguez to extend his gap to almost 5 minutes. Behind he was now chased by a lone Pauwels while Pellizotti, Machado and Brutt were a little further behind. All other riders had been caught by the peloton which continued to grow as riders managed to rejoin from behind.

Sky start to chase

Zandio was one of the riders to get back on and as soon as he was back with his Sky leaders he went to front to start chasing hard together alongside Siutsou. Pellizotti, Brutt and Machado were quickly picked up while Rodriguez had to change bikes in the front and so was joined by Pauwels in the lead.

The duo was, however, coming back and on the lower slopes of the day's final climb it was all back together. As the road started to head upwards, more riders dropped off from the peloton which gradually got smaller and smaller.

Uran attacks

Cataldo was the next to hit the front but with 7km to go Sky started to attack as Uran went up the road. Behind Nibali had now been isolated but as no one wanted to chase Agnoli managed to get back on and he went straight to the front to start chasing.

The Italian remained there all the way up until the steep part at 4,4km to go but as soon as the gradient increased, he fell off and left a very select group at the front. That was the signal for Majka to attack and this started the very hectic and dramatic final of the race.

Result:

1. Rigoberto Uran 4.37.42

2. Carlos Betancur +0.20

3. Vincenzo Nibali +0.31

4. Mauro Santambrogio

5. Cadel Evans

6. Rafal Majka

7. Domenico Pozzovivo

8. Robert Kiserlovski +0.47

9. Benat Intxausti +1.06

10. Bradley Wiggins +1.08

General classification:

1. Vincenzo Nibali 38.57.32

2. Cadel Evans +0.41

3. Rigoberto Uran +2.04

4. Bradley Wiggins +2.05

5. Robert Gesink +2.12

6. Michele Scarponi +2.13

7. Mauro Santambrogio +2.55

8. Przemysalw Niemiec +3.35

9. Domenizo Pozzovivo +4.17

10. Rafal Majka +4.21

Points classification:

1. Cadel Evans 73

2. Elia Viviani 60

3. Mark Cavendish 58

4. Rigoberto Uran 53

5. Mauro Santambrogio 52

Mountains classification:

1. Stefano Pirazzi 38

2. Robinson Chalapud 23

3. Jackson Rodriguez 17

4. Giovanni Visconti 16

5. Rigoberto Uran 15

Youth classification:

1. Rafal Majka 39.01.53

2. Carlos Betancur +1.05

3. Wilco Kelderman +4.34

4. Darwin Atapuma +8.31

5. Diego Rosa +24.09

Teams classification:

1. Sky 116.17.04

2. Blanco +5.29

3. Astana +9.53

4. Lampre +10.20

5. Movistar +13.31