 Three riders broke free of the peloton after 12 km (7.5 mi) — Mikhail Ignatiev, Leonardo Scarselli, and Björn Schröder. Their maximum advantage was 5 ' 20 ", but the peloton had no trouble catching them. Ignatiev and Scarselli were absorbed with 32 km (20 mi) left to race, while Schröder fought on alone, being caught at around 6 km (3.7 mi) to go. Despite being seven riders deep in the bunch with under 1 km (0.62 mi) to go, Mark Cavendish was able to get a successful leadout from Edvald Boasson Hagen and Mark Renshaw to pick up his third stage win of the Giro. The leadout was so fast that only 21 riders had the same time as the stage winner — another 89, including each of the top ten in the General classification (GC), were eight seconds back. Cavendish actually missed the start of the stage, after becoming stuck in the race village due to his habit of lining up on the start of the race at the last minute to avoid press. He was picked up by a Rabobank team car, which was also running late, and brought back to the field by them. He went on to win the stage.
