Richard Carapaz won stage 11 of the Giro d'Italia on Wednesday with a solo ride in the last nine kilometres and leader Isaac Del Toro came second in a sprint to the line, finishing 10 seconds behind the former Olympic champion.
The stage was a challenging 186km ride from Viareggio to Castelnovo ne' Monti which had the most punishing sector on the Giro this year - the Alpe San Pellegrino climb with gradients of around 20%.
Although a breakaway group led by nearly a minute with 15km to go, EF Education-EasyPost's Carapaz left the peloton behind and attacked to reel them in, overtaking them with nine km left.
The Ecuadorean powered to the finish with a lead of 18 seconds in the final kilometre while Del Toro led the chasers, beating Giulio Ciccone who completed the podium.
Del Toro retained the pink jersey while his UAE Team Emirates team mate Juan Ayuso is in second place in the general classification.
Ireland's Sam Bennett (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team) crossed the line 161st and the sprint specialist is and is 45th in the points classification.
Darren Rafferty (EF Education-EasyPost) was 106th and is 99th in the general classification.
Thursday's stage 12 is a flat 172km ride from Modena to Viadana.
