Giro d'Italia: Ciccone wins stage 10

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Italian neo-pro Giulio Ciccone (Bardiani-CSF) took victory on stage 10 of the Giro d'Italia – his debut Grand Tour – on a day that saw Mikel Landa (Team Sky) abandon and the maglia rosa pass from Gianluca Brambilla to his Etixx-QuickStep teammate Bob Jungels.

Ciccone, 21, joined the breakaway after the two early third-category climbs and formed part of a leading trio on the late first-category Pian del Falco, before going clear on the technical descent and holding his lead up the final third-category climb to the line in Sestola.

Ivan Rovny (Tinkoff) came home second, 42 seconds down, followed by Darwin Atapuma (BMC) a further 40 seconds later, both having been part of the day's break.

Crossing the line, Bardiani-CSF's director stuck his head out of the team car and waved his arms in the air in delight at the team's first win of this Giro, with Ciccone soaking up the magnitude of his achievement.

"Today is the best day of my life," he said. "The emotions are massive. It's a feeling I can't describe – I don't have the words. I would like to thank everyone in my team on what is a really huge day.

"Why not? he replied when asked if he'd hunt for another victory. "We will all try again. We are here for stage wins and we won't be happy with just one win. We won't rest on our laurels; we'll continue to fight."

Amador attacks, Brambilla sacrifices

Brambilla may have lost his pink jersey, but this was a tale of sacrifice. With Andrey Amador (Movistar) going on the rampage, the Italian gave his all to make sure the race lead stayed in-house.

Brambilla was dropped as Astana set a searing pace on the Pian del Falco but he hurtled down the technical descent to regain contact with the vastly reduced group of favourites ahead of the final climb. Amador – third on GC at 26 seconds at the start of the day – had punched clear over the top of the climb and opened up a surprisingly big gap on the descent.

Onto the 7.5km drag to the line, Brambilla immediately hit the front and it became clear that he wasn't going to simply try to hang on to his lead, but rather work for Jungels, who was second overall and just a second behind.

The final climb became a battle between Brambilla and Amador, who caught many of the remnants of the day's break, including a helpful ally in teammate Giovanni Visconti. The gap, however, was diminishing all the time and there was just a second in it as Jungels crossed the line with the group of favourites.

"It's unbelievable," Jungels said of his teammate's sacrifice. "Cycling hasn't seen this many times – this was very special.

"It shows the spirit of this team. We are a great group of friends. Two days ago I was happy for him that he kept the jersey in the time trial and now he worked for me and he's happy I've got it. It's an amazing team."

The 23-year-old now leads the race by 26 seconds from Amador, with fellow Movistar rider Alejandro Valverde moving up to third after a slight split in the closing metres saw him gain four seconds on Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) and Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo), who had both started the day ahead of the Spaniard.

More on this story:
Giro d'Italia stage 10 – Finish line quotes
Giro d'Italia stage 10 highlights – Video
Landa abandons Giro d'Italia

Giro d'Italia stage 10 video highlights

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Landa abandons

There was action among the GC contenders late on, but perhaps the most significant moment came during the early phases, as Mikel Landa was forced to end his Giro after less than 70km.

The Spaniard had been struggling with illness overnight, suspected to be viral gastroenteritis, and though his team thought he'd be fit enough to get through the stage, it soon became clear he was in real trouble.

Dropped on the first third-category Passo della Collina, 20-odd kilometres in, Landa's deficit grew out to over six minutes as teammates dropped back in a fruitless attempt to regain contact with the peloton. He climbed off his bike and into the team car ahead of the second climb of the day of Pietracolora at kilometre 67.

Giovanni Visconti was the first breakaway hopeful to make a move stick, going clear just shy of the top of the first climb and he was soon joined by Nicola Boem (Bardiani-CSF) and Przemysław Niemiec (Lampre-Merida).

Damiano Cungeo (Nippo Vini Fantini), aiming to regain the blue mountain jersey from Tim Wellens, sparked a chase move on the second climb, but was reeled in as several other riders rolled the dice. Visconti again took maximum KOM points before a proper chase group formed on the descent.

Cunego was in it, as were Guillaume Bonnafond (AG2R-La Mondiale), Stefano Pirazzi (Bardiani CSF), Giulio Ciccone (Bardiani CSF), Darwin Atapuma (BMC), Nate Brown (Cannondale), Georg Preidler (Giant-Alpecin), Egor Sillin (Katusha), Ivan Rovny (Tinkoff), Riccardo Zoidl (Trek Segafredo) and are 1:56 behind as they head towards the feed zone.

It was a long chase of well over 50km and but one-by-one the three leaders dropped away and a hefty lead group of 13 was formed with a gap of around five minutes.

It was Priedler who made the first attack, going clear at the second intermediate sprint point with 40km remaining and quickly opening up a substantial advantage. After that, the breakaway broke to pieces as they began the to climb the 16-kilometre Pian del Falco.

The Bardiani duo of Ciccone and Stefano Pirazzi forged clear with Cungeo, catching Priedler and dropping Atapuma. While the two men in green tried to decide who was going to be the chosen card for the stage win, Cunego stole away towards the top of the climb to regain his KOM jersey.

Meanwhile, after Etixx had tapped it out in the bunch on the climb, Astana hit the front in numbers and really upped the pace, causing many, including Tom Dumoulin, to be dropped. Brambilla hung on for dear life but was distanced 2km shy of the summit.

Ciccone was the most adept on the technical descent and he had a sizeable lead once he started climbing again, by which time it emerged that his closest threat was Rovny at over half a minute. The Italian refused to weaken, setting up a spectacular stage win, while a couple of minutes down the mountain the GC battle was in full swing.

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