Bulgac piling up the break kilometers in the Giro d'Italia

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Brian Bulgac is turning into an escape artist at the Giro d'Italia. The Lotto Belisol rider took off in both the fifth and ninth stages, but both times the group was caught before the finish.

In stage five, from Modeno to Fano, he joined three other riders virtually from the sharp start, and the quartet stayed away most of the stage. After the stage, “I immediately played with the idea of trying again in the Giro,” he told nu.nl.

Things looked bad the next day, though, when he crashed. “My ankle was badly swollen and blue. I feared a fracture or crack but examinations in the hospital fortunately showed that it was just bruising.

“I had my doubts as to whether I could continue, but Saturday and Sunday I stayed quiet.”

He came back with a bang on Monday. Despite the pain, he jumped again with Pierre Cazaux (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Martijn Keiser (Vacansoleil-DCM) early on. The three never had much more than a four-minute lead, though.

"The co-operation within our trio was pretty good, though I thought we were a little too eager."

He and Cazaux were caught with about 30km to go, and Keizer shortly thereafter. The two Dutch riders were the last over the finish line, eight minutes after winner Francisco Ventoso of Movistar.