Podium outsiders Caruso ("The Giro isn’t over yet") and Gee ("Frustrated I didn’t have the legs") ready for the Finestre

Caruso had an excellent day on the bike. "I felt really good right from the start of the stage," he said on the team's website. "It was a very tough stage, at very high speed. We managed the various phases of the race perfectly," Bahrain Victorious had two men in the early breakaway, Antonio Tiberi and Pello Bilbao. The former regained some of his strength after his crash in Slovenia.

In the final phase, the 24-year-old Italian could assist his lead rider, who was supposed to be his domestique before the start of the Giro. "In the final Antonio was decisive in positioning me for the last climb and the finish. We reached our goal that was not to lose time in GC." The 37-year-old Caruso would have liked to see Tiberi go for his own chance. "I feel sorry for Antonio because he lost chance to try to win the stage but there is still tomorrow. The Giro is not over yet."

Derek Gee almost crashed, and it looked like he had lost time, but the jury later put him in the same time as his opponents. "It was a super hard day out there today," he said via his team's channels. A lot of fireworks were expected in the stage with almost 5,000 meters of climbing, but they didn't materialize. "No one could really move on the final big climb but Carapaz and Del Toro managed to kick away again into the finish." The Canadian from Israel - Premier Tech couldn't keep up.

Along the way, his team performed well: on the Col de Joux, the formation took the lead together with Visma | Lease a Bike. Marco Frigo managed to support his team leader until late in the race. "The boys were amazing and climbed incredibly well today, so I’m a bit frustrated to not have had the legs to move. Tomorrow is a completely different kind of climb, so I’m interested to see how it goes but mostly about getting closer to Rome."