Spain's Igor Anton conquered the punishing climb up Monte Zoncolan to win a shortened stage 14 of the Giro d'Italia this afternoon as compatriot Alberto Contador strengthened his hold on the leader's pink jersey.
Anton, riding for Euskaltel-Euskadi, broke clear with five kilometres remaining of the final 10km ascent to claim victory ahead of Contador with home favourite Vincenzo Nibali third.
Anton crossed the line 33 seconds ahead of the reigning Tour de France champion, who was focused on increasing his lead over Nibali, his main rival in the general classification.
Contador added another seven seconds to his advantage over the Liquigas-Cannondale rider, which now stands at three minutes 20 seconds.
Today's stage was reduced in length to 190km following the decision taken yesterday to exclude the Monte Crostis which was deemed unsafe.
Anton swept past Italian duo Gianluca Brambilla and Matteo Rabottini and then experienced Dutchman Bram Tankink to hit the front for the first time, with his pursuers, who included Contador, Nibali and another Italian, Michele Scarponi, also coming past.
Nibali tried to pull away from Contador four kilometres out as the Spaniard sat on his wheel, but could not shake off his rival.
Scarponi could not keep pace with the pair on the gruelling climb, though, and dropped to fourth in the overall standings as Anton moved up from seventh to third, just a second behind Nibali.
Russian Denis Menchov came home fifth, with France's John Gadret, Spain's Mikel Nieve, Hubert Dupont of France, Belorussian Kanstantsin Sivtsov and Venezuela's Jose Rujano completing the top 10.
