The race was held under classic Italian spring skies, with crisp sunlight shining on the riders all day. At the flag, five riders immediately made up the breakaway, Italians Simone Andreetta (BAR), Giorgio Cecchinel (AND) and Davide Villella (CPT) joined by wildcard riders José Gonçalves of Caja Rural-Seguros and Adrian Honkisz of CCC-Sprandi Polkowice. They were only allowed just over four minutes before the sprint teams stopped the gap growing, eyeing up the uphill finish.
The break was threatened from within a couple of times. First Andreeta cried enough, not feeling up to two full days of breakaway riding. Cecchinel also had a worry 76km from the finish, as he had a mechanical issue that forced him to stop for a new bike, but within a minute he rejoined the group.
Villella took the day's only intermediate sprint points, beating Gonçalves into second. The two finished in the same order over the only categorised climb in Scansano, and aside from a brief neutralisation due to a tight turn with a fountain in the middle of the road, little drama unfolded until the late stages.
Orica-GreenEDGE, Movistar and Katusha were among the teams driving the peloton forward towards the finish, but the breakaway had still not beencaught as they passed the 10km banner, the quartet working together all day to share the load and prolong their lead. That lead stayed around 30 seconds inside the final kilometres, as several teams looked to each other at the front of a flat-fronted peloton.
The peloton finally caught on to the danger with 4km to go, as the lead was still 23 seconds, but the four riders at the front were also beginning to believe in themselves. They came within clear sight of the peloton 2.5km from the finish, and the brave resistance was finally caught just before the flamme rouge, with Dimension Data the first team to drive past them.
As they rounded a corner with a few hundred metres to go, it looked like Daniele Bennati was set to perfectly deliver his Tinkoff teammate Peter Sagan, but Sagan got boxed in and didn't have the legs to respond, eventually just beaten to third by Elia Viviani (SKY).
Etixx-QuickStep's Fernando Gaviria surged past, doing just enough to hold off the fast-finishing Caleb Ewan (OGE) to take the win, his first at WorldTour level and following from a stage win in the Tour de San Luis in January.
Stage winner Fernando Gaviria (EQS):
"It’s been a complicated sprint. All teams were positioning their sprinter. Most of them were tired while Etixx–QuickStep was still able to do a phenomenal job for me. They even led me out too fast. I was touched by someone on my left but fortunately I had the legs to finish it off.
"I’ve worked hard to reach this level and get my first WorldTour victory today just after I won the omnium at the Track World Championship even though it was not a goal for me. My training plans were only built for road racing at WorldTour level."
Tim de Waele
Stage results
1. Fernando Gaviria (EQS) 4:17:28
2. Caleb Ewan (OGE) + :00
3. Elia Viviani (SKY) + :00
General Classification:
1. Zdenek Stybar (EQS) 9:51:18
2. Greg van Avermaet (BMC) + :09
3. Tejay van Garderen (BMC) + :09
4. Damiano Caruso (BMC) + :09
5. Daniel Oss (BMC) + :09
6. Gianluca Brambilla (EQS) + :11
7. Bob Jungels (EQS) + :11
8. Peter Sagan (TNK) + :14
9. Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) + :18
10. Sebastian Reichenbach (FDJ) + :18
Climber Classification:
1. Zdenek Stybar (EQS) 5
2. Davide Villella (CPT) 5
3. Federico Zurlo (LAM) 5
Points Classification:
1. Peter Sagan (TNK) 18
2. Zdenek Stybar (EQS) 12
3. Fernando Gaviria (EQS) 12
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