It was a day for the breakaway at the Giro d'Italia as 13 riders slipped up the road early and were allowed plenty of leeway by Primoz Roglic and Jumbo-Visma.
Roglic was caught up in a big crash and suffered some road rash to his right buttock, and ended up relinquishing the leader's pink jersey to runner-up finisher on the stage, Conti, and now sits five minutes and twenty-four seconds behind the new race leader.
Masnada and Conti attacked on the last and only real climb of the stage with 28 kilometres to go, working together all the way to the finish. Masnada kicked hard in the sprint to the line to win the stage, with Conti finishing behind but taking the reward of the pink leaders' jersey.
Primoz Roglic and the peloton finished seven minutes and 19 seconds behind Masnada, so Conti now leads fellow Italian Giovanni Carboni (Bardiani-CSF) by a minute and 41 seconds in the general classification. Roglic slipped to eleventh overall at five minutes and 24 seconds in arrears. Carboni's hard work in the break also paid off with taking the best young rider's white jersey from Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana), though the Colombian is favoured to take the jersey back once the race hits the mountains proper.
