In Lago Laceno, Aurélien Paret-Peintre defeated the leading group to claim the day's victory. Andreas Leknessund, also in the day's breakaway, is the new holder of the pink leader's jersey. Roglic is now fifth in the general classification.

The fact that the breakaway riders were fighting for the day's victory and the pink jersey was a real scenario before the stage, said Bouwman. "You could win the stage and the pink jersey today if you were in the lead. There was a lot of hustle and bustle because a lot of riders wanted to be there. It was a typical difficult Giro stage."

"At the same time, it was a super beautiful stage", the 2022 Giro mountain jersey winner continued. "The entire stage was grueling for everyone. In the final, Sepp and I were still good with Primoz, so we can be happy. Primoz felt good, but it was mainly about getting through the day well. We have shown that we are ready for what is to come."

Sports director Marc Reef agreed. "The anticipated battle for the day's breakaway did take place. We kept our distance, yet we kept going. We kept Primoz in the front all the time."

On the final climb of the Colle Molella, there was no attack from the GC group. "All the teams riding for the classification were happy with the situation. It served as a test to see how good everyone is as well. We were well represented in the big group with Koen, Sepp and Primoz. Together, we showed that we are in good shape. We have every reason to be confident going into the forthcoming mountain stages", said Reef.

Michel Hessmann crashed on the descent of the day's first categorised climb but was able to continue his way quickly.