The Folorn Hope Survive!

At last, the days selection of forlorn hopes have made it stick and brought it home. Marco Canola out-dueled Jackson Rodriguez and Angelo Tulik, three of what had been a six man break, to win his first Giro d'Italia stage and only his second win as a professional to go with a stage win at the Tour de Langkawi two years ago.

It was supposed to be a day for the sprinters before they hit the mountains tomorrow but their teams spent too much time looking at one another to take up the chase and it allowed the break just enough room to survive.

With the mountains tomorrow, none of the GC contenders and their teams would have any interest in bringing them back and a number other riders will have been thinking of the survival task ahead to have worried much about this group. The stars aligned and they stayed clear.

And it was a break -- also containing Jeffry Romero, Gert Dockx and  -- that went clear right from the start of the 157km stage and though they never built a huge advantage, you have to think that might have been for the best. The peloton behind must have thought they were always within reach when they needed to up the pace and catch them and so left it and left it, and left it too late.

As it were the man who stood most to benefit from them being caught, Nacer Bouhanni, led him the peloton a mere 11 seconds behind.

Result:

1. Marco Canola (Bardiani-CSF) in 3-37-20

2. Jackson Rodriguez (Androni-Giocattoli) + s.t.

3. Angelo Tulik (Europcar) + s.t.

4. Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ.fr) + 11 sec

5. Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek) + s.t.

6. Elia Viviani (Cannondale) + s.t.