The second mountaintop finish in the 2015 Giro d’Italia showed an active Romandie winner Ilnur Zakarin. Ilnur went all day long in the counterattack with 8 other riders behind the hero of the day, Dutch rider Steven Kruijswijck (Lotto NL-Jumbo). In the end Zakarin was caught by the group of favorites but he, as well as the team left Campitello Matese with a nice feeling.

"We had the plan to go in the break and to try something. So Ilnur was the happy guy to do so. He did a very good race. On the final climb he tried to attack, but the others came back. Later, when Intxausti attacked, it was too hard for Ilnur, who had to recover from his previous efforts. In the mean time, Iurii Trofimov stayed in the main pack in the group of the GC contender as long as he could. When Aru and Contador attacked, he preferred to continue at his own pace. Today was just the second uphill finish, the hardest stages still need to come and Team Katusha will try again and again in the coming days, " said Team Director Dmitry Konyshev.

The stage win was for Basque rider Beñat Intxausti (Movistar) who was smarter than his finale companions Sebastien Reichenbach (IAM Cycling) and Steven Kruijswijk. Intxausti and Reichenbach were two of the nine riders trying to chase down Kruijswijk.

The 186 km stage from Fiuggi to Campitello Matese was a stage to be decided on the uphill summit, a climb of 15 kilometers. In the end two races in one stage were going on. One for the stage win with Kruijswijk, Intxausti and Reichenbach, the other for the GC with Aru, Conatdor and Porte. In the end the GC favorites all stayed together. Iurii Trofimov finished just 1.06 behind the group of pink jersey Alberto Contador. Trofimov is now 15th in GC.