Dan Martin may have had a disappointing few days on the Giro but showed his character today when he climbed better than most of the general classification favourites on the upper slopes of Monte Zoncolan.
However, it was race leader Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) and Simon Yates (BikeExchange) who were strongest of the general classification men. And almost two minutes ahead of them Lorenzo Fortunato, an unheralded Italian riding for Eolo-Kometa, dropped his breakaway companions to win the stage.
The 25-year-old was taking his first win as a professional after putting in a fantastic effort on the cold and misty mountain. He finished alone some 26 seconds ahead of Jan Tratnik of Bahrain-Victorious, who was also in the stage-long breakaway. Alessandro Covi, the 22-year-old Italian riding for UAE-Team Emirates, was 3rd at 59 seconds and he also spent the day in the breakaway.
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As the escape group disintegrated on the mountain, the favourites' group continued to get smaller and smaller on a day when Astana Premier Tech drove the pace in the bunch for much of the stage. Ineos Grenadiers then took it up on the climb, with Jonathan Castroviejo and Daniel Martinez in particular setting a very high pace.
Remco Evenepoel (Deceuninck-QuickStep) was spat out the back of the favourites' group with just under 2km to go and went on the radio calling for team mate João Almeida to wait for him. Almeida waited and the duo were getting back into the group with 1km to go when Simon Yates attacked and his move blew the group apart.
Bernal was the only one able to follow and initially Yates looked very comfortable and Bernal seemed to be under pressure. However, the race leader sat behind the British rider as they pulled away from everyone else before attacking him as the finish line neared.
That surge by Bernal saw him catch and pass all of the remaining breakaway survivors apart from the top three, with Bernal taking 4th on the stage some 1:43 down on the winner.
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Once Bernal crossed the line all eyes were on the clock to see the damage he had inflicted on everyone else. Bauke Mollema, the Trek-Segafredo rider who had been in the breakaway, was next to cross the line four seconds after Bernal. Then came Yates in 6th and losing 11 seconds to Bernal.
George Bennett (Jumbo Visma) had also been in the breakaway and he was 7th on the stage. Shortly after he finished the other general classification men - the ones vying for a place on the podium and the other slots in the top 10 - began to arrive.
Daniel Martínez (Ineos Grenadiers), Damiano Caruso (Bahrain-Victorious) and Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo) all finished in the same time, some 38 seconds down on Bernal. Ireland's Dan Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation) was next home, just five seconds later; in 12th place on the stage and 44 seconds down on the maglia rosa.
The other GC men, and the time they lost to Bernal , were as follows: Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-hansgrohe), 13th at 46 seconds; Hugh Carthy (EF Education Nippo), 14th at 54 seconds; Romain Bardet (Team DSM), 15th at 1:02; Aleksandr Vlasov (Astana-Premier Tech) 16th at 1:12; Remco Evenepoel (Deceuninck-QuickStep) in 19th and having lost 1:30 to Bernal in about 1km.
The stage result means Bernal has extended his lead at the top and Yates has moved into 2nd place, some 1:33 down. Caruso, whose Bahrain Victorious team has been decimated with crashes but who has ridden out of his skin so far, is 3rd overall at 1:51. Dan Martin jumped four places on GC today and he is now 13th at 7:50.
Nicolas Roche was called into action earlier on the stage when Astana drove the pace hard down a descent before the final climb. They managed to pull a group clear, which also contained race leader Bernal. Roche was on the front of what remained of the peloton trying to close the gap for his Team DSM leader Bardet.
By the finish line, and with his work down, Roche finished in 54th place at 15:10 - on a day when the last man to finish the 205km stage, Albert Torres of Movistar, was 38:10 down.
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