Stage 7

The road

At the start

The first summit finish, and it's short

Weening still leads by two seconds from the two HTC riders, Nibali is 24 back and Scarponi 26, and nothing has been settled by anything except bonus seconds. Today is only 110 kilometres, but seventeen of them climb to the sanctuary at Montevergine di Mercogliano. It is the first time this Giro asks the overall contenders a question they cannot sit behind a teammate to avoid.

How it was won

1. 181 km to go

   Five clear at thirty

   Canuti, Pineau, Visconti, Bak and Montaguti go thirty kilometres into a short, sharp 110-kilometre day and have 3:20 by the time the road starts pointing upward.

2. 224 km to go

   Hoogerland bridges alone

   Johnny Hoogerland decides he wants a share of it and rides across on his own outside Avellino, twenty-four kilometres from the summit finish, turning five into six.

3. 317 km to go

   Liquigas light the Montevergine

   Seventeen kilometres of climbing to the sanctuary, and Liquigas-Cannondale go to the front for Nibali at a pace that takes the peloton apart. Visconti and Pineau sit up and wait to be swallowed; Bak attacks the break and gets twenty seconds.

4. 48 km to go

   De Clercq goes

   Bak is caught at 8.3 kilometres and in the same breath Bart De Clercq attacks. Twenty-two seconds becomes thirty-three, then a minute and five, and a neo-pro is riding away with a Giro stage while the favourites watch each other.

5. 5At the line

   Santuario di Montevergine

   In the last three hundred metres Scarponi, Kreuziger, Garzelli and Nibali finally come for him, four of the best climbers in the race hunting a 24-year-old up the final ramp, and they run out of road. De Clercq wins by a bike length. Weening keeps pink by two seconds.

The result