"I went early but unfortunately (Luka) Mezgec [Giant-Shimano, third in stage - Ed.] didn't close the door on Bouhanni and so he was able to come through along the barriers," Nizzolo, already second behind Bouhanni in Bari and third behind the Frenchman and winner Marcel Kittel (Giant-Shimano) in Belfast, told Italian television.
"Today I'm very disappointed, it was so close. But Bouhanni deserved the win, I gave it everything but didn't make it."
As Nizzolo, a former winner of the Tour of Wallonie and triumphant in stage three of the Tour of San Luis this January, pointed out, the opportunity on stage seven for the 25-year-old to take his first WorldTour victory of his career was "ideal."
"The team had worked very well, they had worked so hard to bring back the break, too. It was one of the few bunch sprints we'll have in this year's Giro. But it didn't work out."
Nizzolo's next opportunity to go for a bunch sprint will likely be on Tuesday's stage ten, an almost completely flat 173 kilometre run from Modena to Salsomaggiore.
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Alasdair Fotheringham has been reporting on cycling since 1991. He has covered every Tour de France since 1992 bar one, as well as numerous other bike races of all shapes and sizes, ranging from the Olympic Games in 2008 to the now sadly defunct Subida a Urkiola hill climb in Spain. As well as working for Cyclingnews, he has also written for The Independent, The Guardian, ProCycling, The Express and Reuters.
