Stage 11 of this year’s Giro d’Italia might not have been the mudfest of 2010’s strade bianche stage, but the drama did not disappoint. Mauro Schmid of Qhubeka Assos took his first professional win in a lung-busting sprint to the line with fellow breaker Alessandro Covi (UAE), three minutes ahead of the GC. But it was race leader Egan Bernal who put the fire in the race as he showed his ruthless side, putting the screws to all his rivals and some clear space between himself and Aleksandr Vlasov (Astana) who now sits in second at 45sec. Damiano Caruso (Bahrain Victorious) is in 3rd at 1.12. The top 10 got quite the shuffling, with Emanuel Buchmann (Bora) coming out of the stage the best, by jumping from 15th to 6th.
