Ciccone’s fellow escapee, Tinkoff’s Ivan Rovny, crossed 42 seconds behind in second, with another member of the break, Darwin Atapuma, in third.
Advertisement
Landa, who joined Sky from Astana at the end of last season, was the British outfit’s leader for the Giro and was one of the pre-race favourites to win the pink jersey. He was among the race favourites and was trailing from the first climb of the 219km stage between Campi Bisenzio and Sestola. It highlights how much our team is like an enormous family.
But he was overhauled on the ascent by Vini Fantini’s Damiano Cunego and the Bardiani-CSF pairing of Stefano Pirazzi and Ciccone.
“Prior to stage ten, Nicolas Roche was Team Sky’s second-best placed rider, sitting 28th overall – 6’47” behind race leader Gianluca Brambilla. I hope I have paid him back for the faith he put in me by pulling our group. Although they managed to stay upright, the incident allowed Ciccone to pull clear.
Hesjedal lost touch with the lead group in the medium-mountainous 216-kilometre stage, from Campi Bisenzio to Sestola, but gamely fought back to place 25th at the summit finish.
Brambilla finished three minutes and 27 seconds off the pace and drops to sixth in the overall classification.
Amador is 26 seconds behind Jungels in the GC in second and team-mate Alejandro Valverde is third, trailing the leader by 50 seconds.
“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. “I had great support from the guys [Trek Segafredo teammates] before the second-to-last climb and then hung in there enough to get back to the front [group] on the descent”. “I can’t believe it”. Mikel Landa was ill but nevertheless started the race.
Advertisement
Today’s 11th stage, 212 kilometres from Modena to Asolo, is another categorized as medium-mountain.
