Stage 11

The road

How it was won

1. 1143 km to go

   A sprint before the racing starts

   The flag drops and the attacks begin, but an intermediate sprint 7.6 kilometres in keeps the sprinters' teams honest. Nizzolo beats Viviani; the break can go afterwards.

2. 280 km to go

   Rain splits everything

   The peloton fractures into three groups on soaked Romagna roads and the crashes come in twos and threes. Betancur takes a heavy blow to his right side and drags himself back to the break; Paolini goes down too. Nobody waits.

3. 323 km to go

   Zakarin blinks first

   Seven are left in front with the Imola circuit unwinding beneath them when Ilnur Zakarin, the least experienced of them, strikes out on the penultimate climb. He takes appalling risks on the streaming descent and turns twenty seconds into forty.

4. 46 km to go

   Contador tests Aru in the rain

   Not content with rolling home behind the break, the maglia rosa attacks the last time up Tre Monti. Aru chases, fails to close, and is brought back only when Contador eases — a psychological point banked.

5. 5At the line

   Zakarin on the Formula 1 tarmac

   Nobody could shut him down. The Russian crosses the line at Imola alone in the pouring rain for Katusha's first win of the race.

The result