Alexander Foliforov takes surprise stage win, Steven Kruijswijk stays in pink

The Dutchman, riding a pink-tinged bike, extended his overall lead after finishing second to surprise stage winner Alexander Foliforov (Gazprom-Rusvelo) of Russia.

"This is unbelievable. It's like a dream to win this stage," Foliforov said after the race.

"I came to the Giro well prepared for this stage in particular because uphill time trials have always been my forte. I did my best but I didn't expect to win. However, this is not going to be my last victory."

Italy's Nibali had a disastrous day, switching his bike after troubles with his chain and rear derailleur gears and then being forced to push away a spectator who ran too close to him.

Sunday's 10.8 km stage was almost exclusively uphill including a twisting, turning climb over nine km up Alpe di Siusi.

Kruijswiyk was one of the few riders to use clip-on aerobars and by the end he had increased his overall lead to two minutes 12 seconds from Colombia's Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEdge) with Nibali in third 2:51 behind the leader.

"I really wanted to win the stage as well. I finished second yesterday as well," Kruijswiyk said after the race.

"I heard towards the end that I was close to the victory but most importantly I gained time over my rivals on GC. I did everything for that and I'm confident that I'll be able to defend the Maglia Rosa during the last week".

Colombia's Rigoberto Uran (Cannondale) slipped out of the top 10 after finishing 50th.

Foliforov excelled in the mountainous conditions to post a rare success for Gazprom-Rusvelo, with team mate Sergey Firsanov coming fourth.

Who else? Having assumed the maglia rosa yesterday, the Dutchman managed to extend his lead over the rest of the field as Alexander Foliforov claimed a surprise win. Throw into the mix a mechanical for one Vincenzo Nibali that saw the Shark come in 25th spot and drop to third in the GC and it all went pretty well for the 28-year-old. Esteban Chaves, who claimed Stage 14, is up to third while Alejandro Valverde had a better day after haemorrhaging time yesterday.

Nibali was to aiming to claw back time on the third and final time trial of the Giro but it descended into a disaster. He was already some 30+ seconds behind Kruijswijk when troubles with his chain and rear derailleur gears struck. The gap to Kruijswijk - 2:51 – is not insurmountable but Nibali had targeted today’s stage to close the gap.

Can Kruijswijk sustain it? He’ll need support from his LottoNL-Jumbo team of which he has been afforded precious little thus far. However, he has put himself in an enviable position and put time on his GC rivals during the time trial.

Tomorrow is the final rest day of this year’s Giro but the race resumes on Tuesday with the 132-km stage from Bressanone to Andalo.

1 Alexander Foliforov (Gazprom-Rusvelo) 0:28:39

2 Steven Kruijswijk (Team LottoNl-Jumbo) 0:00:00

3 Alejandro Valverde (Movistar Team) 0:00:23

4 Sergey Firsanov (Gazprom-Rusvelo) 0:00:30

5 Michele Scarponi (Astana Pro Team) 0:00:36

6 Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEdge) 0:00:40

7 Ilnur Zakarin (Team Katusha) 0:00:47

8 Joe Dombrowski (Cannondale Pro Cycling) 0:00:52

9 Bob Jungels (Etixx - Quick-Step) 0:01:04

10 Rafal Majka (Tinkoff Team) 0:01:09

1 Steven Kruijswijk (Team LottoNl-Jumbo) 60:41:22

2 Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEdge) 0:02:12

3 Vincenzo Nibali (Astana Pro Team) 0:02:51

4 Alejandro Valverde (Movistar Team) 0:03:29

5 Rafal Majka (Tinkoff Team) 0:04:38

6 Ilnur Zakarin (Team Katusha) 0:04:40

7 Andrey Amador (Movistar Team) 0:05:27

8 Bob Jungels (Etixx - Quick-Step) 0:07:14

9 Kanstantsin Siutsou (Dimension Data) 0:07:37

10 Jakob Fuglsang (Astana Pro Team) 0:07:55