Battaglin jumped away with Giovanni Visconti (Bahrain-Merida), and once the line was in sight he never looked back - his powerful surge too much for Visconti. In fairness to the Bahrain rider, he had to help his team leader Domenico Pozzovivo back from a massive disruption in the peloton inside the final 15km and the effort clearly cost him.
A similar chase also cost best young rider Max Schachmann (Quick-Step Floors), who lost his bid to take the bonus seconds for third place to Katusha-Alpecin's José Gonçalves. The four second bonus pushed the Portuguese rider into eighth in the general classification.
Most of the top 10 riders overall remained in the same spots - leader Rohan Dennis (BMC) and defending Giro d'Italia champion Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb) separated by a single second, and Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) in third at 17 seconds.
Get The Leadout Newsletter
The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!
Thank you for reading 5 articles in the past 30 days*
