Stage 4

The road

How it was won

1. 151 km to go

   Thirty become five on the Termine

   A monster thirty-man break has been up the road since the first hour, and the Passo del Termine tears it apart. Formolo, Monfort, Puccio, Amador and Zeits are the ones still going over the top.

2. 232 km to go

   Astana halve the gap

   Six minutes becomes five on the descent as Astana take control, and Simon Clarke — dropped, and Orica's last hope of holding pink — descends with such poise that he simply rides back onto the leaders.

3. 314 km to go

   Formolo rolls the dice

   Just before the road tips up for the last time, a 22-year-old on his Grand Tour debut slips away from what is left of the break. Nobody goes with him.

4. 411 km to go

   Aru attacks, Contador shadows

   With a shade over ten kilometres left Fabio Aru pushes clear on the climb of Biassa, and Alberto Contador is already on his wheel — a decision made minutes earlier and thoroughly vindicated. Porte matches them; Urán is found wanting.

5. 5At the line

   Formolo comes of age in La Spezia

   A breakneck plunge off Biassa and Davide Formolo has his first professional win, taken at the Giro d'Italia, in Italy, at twenty-two.

The result