With no intermediate climbs en-route, and the sprinters focused more on racking up the points which come with the stage win, rather than the intermediate bonuses, it was little surprise to see the break given a wide berth by many of the WorldTour riders.

And by the same token it was also little surprise to see Andrea Fedi (Neri Sottoli) and Marco Bandiera (Androni Giacattoli-Venezuela) go up the road.

Between them they’ve now racked up more than 1,000 points towards the Fuga Pinarello prize for the most attacking rider, and there will be plenty of opportunity for them to add to that.

While the classification ranks very low among the prizes on offer at the Giro, the effort required to win it shouldn’t be understated. Both of their teams had points to prove given the surprise of IAM Cycling and MTN-Qhubeka missing out on wildcards. But both are doing a sterling job for themselves, their team and their sponsors so far. Chapeau to both!