San Francisco Frontiers - Scaroni wins in Alps as Roglic quits Giro d'Italia

One of those was the former winner Primoz Roglic whose troubled race ended in abandonment after suffering a fourth crash in this year's race. Richard Carapaz was also involved but was able to continue.

Scaroni and fellow Italian and Astana team-mate Lorenzo Fortunato, the two survivors of a long breakaway, crossed the line holding hands at the end of a mountainous 203-kilometre push from Piazzola sul Brenta to San Valentino.

"We spoke about it. He said he would give the stage to me. He's an incredible mate," said Scaroni.

Scaroni became the first Italian to win a stage on this year's Giro, while Fortunato tightened his hold on the king of the mountains classification.

Behind them, Carapaz, Derek Gee and then Simon Yates, one after another, launched late attacks that Del Toro could not match.

The 21-year-old Mexican plugged away and did enough to save his pink jersey, but his overall lead dropped to 26 seconds over Yates and 31 seconds over Carapaz.

On a day when pre-race favourite Roglic, who had started the day in 10th nearly 4min off the lead, crashed out and Juan Ayuso, who had been third overall, cracked, Gee rose to fourth, 1min 31sec off the lead.

Ayuso, in theory the leader of Del Toro's Team UAE, lost the thread on the penultimate climb, Santa Barbara. He crossed the finish line almost 15 minutes after Scaroni and dropped out of the top 10.

His collapse left the other UAE riders, including Simon Yates' twin Adam, free to protect Del Toro. Heading toward the final climb, Del Toro rode in a Yates sandwich, sitting in Adam's slipstream while Simon tracked behind.

- Rain jacket -

Two other riders were forced to withdraw on Tuesday after crashes. Josh Tarling of Ineos dropped out after hitting a guardrail while Italian Alessio Martinelli plunged into a ravine during a descent.

Martinelli's team Bardiani said the 24-year-old was conscious when he was taken away by ambulance and was in "stable" condition.

On a day of intermittent showers, former Tour de France winner, Egan Bernal of Ineos, crashed on a descent when another rider's rain jacket appeared to become tangled in his wheel. He changed bikes and rode on, climbing to sixth overall.

Roglic, a five-time Grand Tour champion including the 2023 Giro, had already crashed three times in this year's edition and said before the start that he had struggled to train on Monday's rest day.

"I still came to the start today and I couldn't even ride the bike yesterday, so I'll just see if I can ride," he said.

It is the fifth time in his last nine Grand Tours he has failed to finish the race.

Tuesday's stage opened a mountainous final week on the Giro.

Wednesday brings a 155km run from San Michele all'Adige to Bormio that organisers rate three out of five for difficult.

Friday and Saturday offer two five-star days with a string of huge climbs which will decide who can enjoy a triumphal entry to Rome at the end of a flat final stage.

W.Thompson--SFF