Whereas the spectacular, demanding stage four of the Giro to La Spezia yesterday prevented the whole Movistar Team from showing their real weapons, the Blues' whole block shone in its entirety today in the first mountain-top finish. The Cat-2 Abetone saw Alberto Contador (TCS) seize control of the pink jersey, as Slovenian Jan Polanc (LAM) took another early break to fruition for the day's honours.

“Neither Beñat (Intxausti) nor Ion (Izagirre) cope well with heat," explained sports director Chente García Acosta to Eurosport during the stage. “We're having the first really warm days of racing in 2015 during the Giro, and seeing how fast we rode yesterday, without chance of having proper hydration - adding that Beñat doesn't like heat at all and Ion suffered some cramps and wasn't doing well before them - you can explain what happened yesterday. Still, the Giro is long and, as we saw today, we're up for the fight on every stage."

While Intxausti remains focused on fighting for stages, Izagirre (19th, +2’06”) showed his best form on a day where three of the Movistar Team riders made it into the top 25 of the stage. Giovanni Visconti (21st, +2’15”), racing on training roads today, fought relentlessly on the last climb to follow the GC contenders after an attack by Contador in the final 5k. However, when the gap had reduced to a slender 20" after growing up to a minute, a strange incident in his group made him lose ground.

“I like the place I'm in overall and I wanted to keep it and give it a shot at the favourites, but that crash with 1.5km to go, in the first places of my group, forced me to put a foot on the ground and lose some seconds,” explained Visconti to RAI, the Italian still 7th GC, now 56" back on Contador. “It's frustrating to concede time this way, on climbs that haven't often been the best for me, in such an incident when climbing, but the legs are still good. Probably, I've been one of the strongest in that chase group. We'll keep trying."

The day's other good news, apart from decent performances by Antón and Herrada - the latter one working for Visconti in the finale - and Dayer Quintana's recover, was a huge result by Andrey Amador, 12th across the line today (+1'53") and now tenth overall, at 1’18” from Contador. The Costa Rican will have the chance to keep that place until Saturday, as sprinters come back to the fore tomorrow and on Friday.