Wednesday 18 May 2016 17:38, UK
Italy's Diego Ulissi sprinted to his second win of this year's Giro d'Italia as Bob Jungels retained the overall lead in a frenetic conclusion to stage 11 in Asolo.
Both riders formed part of a late three-man breakaway along with Andrey Amador (Movistar), and Ulissi (Lampre-Merida) subsequently produced the fastest finish to secure the sixth Giro stage win of his career.
Jungels (Etixx - Quick-Step) crossed the line in third and collected four bonus seconds, but his overall lead was cut to 24 seconds given that second-placed Amador finished runner-up on the day and received six bonus seconds.
All of the favourites for overall victory followed 13 seconds later, meaning Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) remains third overall but drops to 1min 7sec down, while Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) stays fifth, now 1min 9sec adrift.
The 227km stage was mostly flat and had been tipped to finish in a bunch sprint, but the overall contenders raced two late climbs aggressively and the peloton consequently split apart.
Amador attacked with 13km to go and was immediately joined by Jungels, and then Ulissi made it a trio by launching what would turn out to be a decisive a counter-attack on the final climb, with about 4km to go.
Ulissi said: "Amador and Jungels were riding very fast in the front of the race. I was aware that I had to attack on the final hill if I wanted to bridged the gap. I reached them, and then I found good cooperation from Jungels and I could perform a perfect sprint."
Former leader Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) abandoned the race earlier in the stage due to saddle sores, having previously lost 13 minutes on stage 10.
The Giro continues on Thursday with a flat 182km 12th stage from Noale to Bibione. Find out more about the route in our race guide.
Stage 11 result
1 Diego Ulissi (Ita) Lampre-Merida, 4:56:32
2 Andrey Amador (Cos) Movistar, same time
3 Bob Jungels (Lux) Etixx - Quick-Step, st
4 Giacomo Nizzolo (Ita) Trek-Segafredo, +13sec
5 Sonny Colbrelli (Ita) Bardiani-CSF, st
6 Matteo Trentin (Ita) Etixx - Quick-Step, st
7 Sacha Modolo (Ita) Lampre-Merida, st
8 Enrico Battaglin (Ita) Bardiani-CSF, st
9 Tim Wellens (Bel) Lotto Soudal, st
10 Alejandro Valverde (Esp) Movistar, st
General classification
1 Bob Jungels (Lux) Etixx - Quick-Step, 45:16:20
2 Andrey Amador (Cos) Movistar, +24sec
3 Alejandro Valverde (Esp) Movistar, +1:07
4 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo, same time
5 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana, +1:09
6 Rafal Majka (Pol) Tinkoff, +2:01
7 Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Katusha, +2:25
8 Esteban Chaves (Col) Orica-GreenEdge, +2:43
9 Gianluca Brambilla (Ita) Etixx - Quick-Step, +2:45
10 Diego Ulissi (Ita) Lampre-Merida, +2:47
