The sprinters were supposed to take Stage 10, but they did not do so. The break of the day stayed away, and Nicola Boem (Bardiani-CSF) took a sprint to win the flat, 200-km run from Civitanova Marche to Forli in 4:26:16. Matteo Busato (Southeast) finished second, and Alessandro Malaguti (Nippo-Vini Fantini) took third at 0:02. Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo Bank) remains the maglia rosa.

The break of the day consisted of Oscar Gatto (Androni Giacattoli-Venezuela), Boem, Busato, Malaguti, and Alan Marangoni (Cannondale-Garmin). The sprinters’ teams kept the escapees on a short leash, and the breal never led the field by more than five minutes. With 45 km remaining and Lotto, Trek, and Giant-Alpecin driving the peloton, the gap was 2:38. The fugitives collaborated well, however, and the bunch could not close the deal.

In the last 15 km, BMC and Ag2r-La Mondiale sent attackers off of the front. The bunch had underestimated the break, however, and the peloton was not closing the gap fast enough. Gatto punctured with 12 km left, and the peloton caught him.

With five km to go, the escapees led the field by one minute. One km later, disaster struck a GC contender. Richie Porte (Sky Pro Cycling) who began the day in third place overall at 0:22, punctured. Simon Clarke (Orica-GreenEdge) gave him a wheel, and Porte’s teammates and Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEdge) attempted to pace Porte back to the bunch. The Tasmanian would finish 0:47 behind the peloton. In addition, the race jury docked him two minutes for violating a rule forbidding taking assistance from an opposing team. Porte is now 12^th on GC at 3:09.

With 1.6 km left, Marangoni attacked his companions. For a time, the Italian looked like a winner, but Malanguti started chasing and Boem joined him. Boem took Malaguti’s wheel just after the last corner and made his move. Busato attempted to pass the Bardiani-CSF man, but Boem held him off.

Boem felt that collaboration until nearly the end ensured the break’s survival. “With 20 km to go, we still had a lead of 2:30,” the Bardiani-CSF man said. “We rode at 100 percent until there were two km to go, then from there, the skirmishes began. I did pretty well to close the gap on Alan, otherwise he'd have made it, and then, on the curve 500 m from the finish, I attacked from behind him, and I thought, either I get him, or he wins the stage.”

Contador was a beneficiary of Porte’s misfortune, but as the Spaniard was injured last week in a finish line crash, he was philosophical about the role that luck plays in winning. “Any day, you can lose a lot of time because of a crash or a mechanical problem, even on an otherwise straightforward stage,” the Spaniard said. Contador never spoke truer words than those.

In the overall, Contador leads Fabio Aru and Mikel Landa (both from Astana) by 0:03 and 0:46, respectively. Stage 3 will be a lumpy, 153-km ride from Forli to Imola that will feature two Category 3 climbs and a Category 4 ascent. A bumpy finish is likely to favor Matthews, Philippe Gilbert (BMC), or Diego Ulissi (Lampre-Merida). Who will win? Check in at www.roadcycling.com and find out! 

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