Aru wins thrusting himself into GC contention; Quintana takes back seconds; Evans loses time

And suddenly Fabio Aru has thrust himself right into contention for this years Giro with a superb attack in the final kilometres of this summit finish to Montecampione to take 22 seconds out of Nairo Quintana, 42 seconds out of the Pink jersey of Rigoberto Uran, and 1 minute, 13 seconds out of Cadel Evans. He's put himself into fourth place overall under two and a half minutes back on Uran who maintained (and extended thanks to him taking time on a tired looking Evans) his lead in this years race.

The early break once again tried to share the spoils of the stage but never carried enough of a lead into a long finishing climb. It was a day that was perfectly flat before the climb and so all eyes were on that final ramp into the sky. At one point Irishman, Philip Deignan, had a crack out of an ever decreasing lead peloton, but when the main contenders to win this Giro began to make their moves his lead was quickly overcome.

Once again the first to go was Pierre Rolland, and once again they let him go, though this time it took his second surge before he got a gap. Rolland came into today 5-07 down on Uran but again took time, but while those time gaps are limited to seconds rather than minutes and while Uran has so much competition around him to go chasing every move, Rolland will be allowed to chip away at his lead and perhaps look to win a stage before this Giro is done.

Shortly after Quintana made his bid but was followed by this time but Uran, who after yesterday, looked much stronger. It was Evans who once again looked like he was tiring out in this Giro. He couldn't follow the crucial moves and finished in a small group containing Ryder Hesjedal who spent the majority of the final portions of the climb going off and on the back of what was left of the main pack. Hesjedal, like Evans in many ways, is a big diesel engine, he doesn't react well to the quick changes in pace and prefers to grind up the hills in his own rhythm. It's why when the pace went up, Hesjedal went back, but when those surges inevitably ceased and the contenders began to look at one another to pick up the slack that he got back on. Another like that is former two-time winner, Ivan Basso, but his glory days are behind him now and when those surges ceased, he couldn't get back on. And so it was for Evans but as the kilometres closed in the pace remained high and so the gap continued to grow. Thankfully for him the metres ran out before the clock did serious damage but losing 31 seconds to Uran and dropping more than a minute behind him overall is not a good sign with the biggest climbing to come.

When Quintana kicked a second time Uran couldn't react but the damage was limited to 20 seconds. Someone Quintana couldn't shake was Rolland having earlier bridged across to his attack. Rolland is looking stronger by the day and those around him will be thankful that his gap to the Pink jersey is still just shy of five minutes.

The competition however remains fierce. Is there anyone in the top six of the overall -- separated by a mere 2 minutes, 42 seconds -- who cannot still win this Giro? Especially with all the climbing still to come? The past two days have shown that they're only gaining seconds on one another and so Uran's more than a minute lead on second place Evans is still an advantage, you have to think with the worst still to come and legs getting tireder, the gaps may increase and with it the chances for someone -- maybe all of them on given days -- to have a bad day and lose minutes.

Result:

1. Fabio Aru (Astana) in 5-33-06

2. Fabio Duarte Arevalo (Colombia) + 21 sec

3. Nairo Quintana (Movistar) + 22 sec

4. Pierre Rolland (Europcar) + s.t.

5. Rigoberto Uran (OPQS) + 42 sec

6. Rafal Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo) + 52 sec

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9. Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin Sharp) + 1-13

10. Cadel Evans (BMC) + s.t.

Overall:

1. Rigoberto Uran (OPQS) in 63-26-39

2. Cadel Evans (BMC) + 1-03

3. Rafal Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo) + 1-50

4. Fabio Aru (Astana) + 2-24

5. Nairo Quintana (Movistar) + 2-40

6. Domenico Pozzovivo (AG2R La Mondiale) + 2-42