Cycling: The first real mountain stage of the Giro d'Italia brought the expected change at the top of the overall standings. Twelve years after ex-mountain biker Cadel Evans (BMC) received the Maglia Rosa for the first time, he was able to celebrate in pink again in Montecopiolo. A fifth day rank was enough for him. Diego Ulissi (Lampre-Merida) secured the stage win. For the Italian it was already the second success in this Giro.
With the local mountain of Marco Pantani, who died ten years ago, the Carpegna, the eighth part of the day was steeped in history. And indeed, a preliminary decision should be made on the first of the two difficult climbs of the stage. Until then, a leading group around the Colombian Julian Arredondo (Trek) had dominated the race. In addition to him, last year's mountain classification winner, Stefano Pirazzi (Bardiani-CSF), ensured the pace at the top. However, they were able to extend the lead over the field to little more than four minutes. On the Carpegna both therefore decided to leave their competitors behind, with Arredondo clearly having the better legs.
The Colombian tackled the last thirty kilometers solo after breaking away from Pirazzi with a powerful acceleration. At the end of the day he was happy about the blue jersey of the best climber. The day's victory, however, made other among themselves.
After the teams of the overall ranking favorites were able to continuously reduce the gap to the top on the Carpegna, and also the pink Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEdge) got rid of, Frenchman Pierre Rolland (Europcar) seized the initiative before the finish climb. With just under two kilometers to go, he caught up with Arredondo and took a small lead over the group around Evans and Ulissi over the last kilometer. But when Daniel Moreno (Katusha) increased the pace 500 meters from the finish, his measurements were read. Moreno himself brought about the increase in speed by Ulissi, who was only able to defy Robert Kiserlovski (Trek). The Croatian ended up second. However, there was a gap behind the two. The Dutchman Wilco Keldermann (Belkin) secured the sprint for third place, six seconds behind.
Since Matthews couldn't keep up with the group around Evans, they change Pink sweater on the shoulders of the 2011 Tour de France winner. Second overall is currently Rigoberto Uran (Omega Pharma-QuickStep), third is Pole Rafal Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo). In addition to Matthews, Michele Scarponi (Astana) also lost a lot of time and will therefore no longer be able to participate in the race for Pink.
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