The feared 'sterrato' stage, with three dirty roads in the finale, made no important difference between the GC favourites of the 94th Giro d'Italia. Movistar Team's leader David Arroyo was always on the front of the race and showed he's in excellent condition for the race where he's defending his runner-up position from last year.

The Spanish rider, brilliantly conducted in the most difficult sections by Pablo Lastras, who sits now in 5th overall, even took chances for the day’s victory by attacking just before the flamme rouge, the last hard slope overcome with 2 kilometers remaining. Arroyo was not able to make a gap from the group of favourites -where Kiryienka, Pardilla and Lastras made Blue the main colour-, which did not manage either to reel Dutchman Pieter Weening (RAB) back, the stage victor becoming also the new maglia rosa after his attempt with 10k from the finish. The three dirt sections left several crashes and lots of mechanicals -with Movistar Team having two crashes from Pasamontes; Konovalovas and Ventoso also fell onto the ground-, which made the race reach the finish just one by one. Despite those incidents, the great overall performance from the squad led by Arrieta and Jaimerena lead them on top of the teams’ overall.

David Arroyo: “I’m happy with how the day went, because there was really much to lose today and I didn’t have any problems. I have to thank the team, which was a key help for me to ride up-front, leaving me within the best ten on the beginning of the sterrato. After that, Pablo Lastras was always with me and did an incredible work. Today, more than the hardness of the routes, the main difficulty was positioning and keeping the nerves calm. Everyone tries to be on front and there’s too much tension. That’s something that takes a lot of energy from you, but we managed to get over it. In the last kilometer I felt myself in good speed and tried it, but the finish did not really suit my abilities. The final slope wasn’t good for me, and that’s why I’m happy to have me it with the best.”