Bob Jungels moved into the overall lead of the Giro d’Italia on Tuesday, while Giulio Ciccone soloed to victory on the mountainous 10th stage in his debut Grand Tour.
An emotional Ciccone shook his head as he crossed the line after nearly six hours on the 219-kilometer (136-mile) ride from Campi Bisenzio to Sestola.
Ivan Rovny was 42 seconds behind the Italian, and Darwin Atapuma third, 80 seconds off the pace.
“Today I’m living the most beautiful day of my life,” said Ciccon, who turned professional this year. “It doesn’t feel real. It’s like being in a bubble.
“Finally I’ve taken my first pro win. It highlights how much our team is like an enormous family. I thank them all, especially Nicola Boem who sacrificed himself for me. I hope I have paid him back for the faith he put in me by pulling our group.”
Ciccone was part of a chasing group which caught the breakaway riders with more than 70 kilometers remaining to form a break of 13 riders, which had an advantage of more than five minutes on the peloton.
Ciccone attacked near the top of the penultimate climb, the Pian del Falco, and was followed by Bardiani teammate Stefano Pirazzi and Damiano Cunego.
The latter two ran into each other on a corner on the technical descent. Although they managed to stay upright, the incident allowed Ciccone to pull clear.
Jungels replaced Etixx-QuickStep teammate Gianluca Brambilla as the overall leader. He has a 26-second lead over Andrey Amador, with Alejandro Valverde 50 seconds behind.
Brambilla was dropped on the climb up the Falco, and although he managed to rejoin the peloton, he sacrificed his chances of retaining the pink jersey for his teammate.
The Italian slipped to sixth overall, 1:11 behind Jungels.
“It doesn’t often happen in cycling that the first rider in the classification pulls for the second one, so what Brambilla did today is incredible,” Jungels said. “He was dropped, then he came back and pulled again. I can’t believe it.”
Two pre-race favorites abandoned the Giro. Mikel Landa was ill but nevertheless started the race. However, he eventually climbed off on the approach to the second third-category climb. Fabian Cancellara, who was ill just before the start of the Giro, pulled out before the start of the stage, as did Alexey Tsatevich.
The 11th stage on Wednesday is mainly flat until the final 30 kilometers of the 227-kilometer (141-mile) route from Modena to Asolo.
