Stage 11

The road

At the start

White roads to Montalcino

The rest day is over and the second half of the Giro begins on dirt: four sectors of Tuscan sterrato, 35 kilometres of white road packed into the closing seventy — more than twice what the peloton faced on the mud-caked day Cadel Evans won at Montalcino in 2010. Bernal leads by fourteen seconds from Evenepoel, whose Grand Tour debut has so far gone almost perfectly, and by 22 from Vlasov. Tim Merlier has gone home.

How it was won

1. 163 km to go

   Bennett and Foss slip away

   At the top of the second sterrato sector the New Zealand champion pushes on hard enough to open a gap over the whole favourites' group, and takes Foss with him to thirty seconds before Ineos re-establish order.

2. 238 km to go

   Evenepoel loses the Giro on the gravel

   On the long third sector climbing towards Sant'Angelo in Colle, the 21-year-old looks profoundly uncomfortable on the dirt and slips off the back. Bernal himself goes to the front of the group to twist the knife, rising from the saddle as the gradient tilts, and Evenepoel drops twenty seconds, then forty-five. He rips his earpiece out in fury; by the end of the sector he is 1:10 down.

3. 314 km to go

   The last sector

   Fourteen kilometres out the break hits the final five kilometres of gravel six minutes clear. De Bondt attacks repeatedly until Covi and then Schmid are the only ones left with him.

4. 45 km to go

   The favourites are drawn out

   Movistar take over for Soler, then Vlasov moves through, and the GC group finally shatters into a dozen at the front and a long trail of stragglers. Evenepoel, dripping with sweat, sees his deficit climb towards two minutes.

5. 5At the line

   Montalcino

   Mauro Schmid beats Covi in a two-up sprint for his first professional victory. Bernal, having ridden the sterrato like a man who wanted it, extends his lead.

The result