One of the greatest ones belonged to Team Sky’s Mikel Landa and the aforementioned Fraile just after just 48km into the race. For a moment, the duo had an advantage of more than two minutes, but they were gradually pulled back into the scattered peloton near the base of the final climb with only 40 km remaining. When that happened, Landa was dropped immediately, unable to keep up, but Fraile did a perfect job of settling back in to the break before making a well-timed move on the final climb to chase down Pierre Rolland (Cannondale-Drapac).
But this didn’t mean victory just yet. On the final descent, he was joined by Rui Costa (UAE Team Emirates) and then Tanel Kangert (Astana), the stage came down to a four-man sprint, with Friale proving forcing his legs to do their best and crossing the finish line as the first. Fraile’s victory was the first Dimension Data’s one at the Giro d’Italia.
The 11th stage also saw some hopes shattered as it seems that Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) was looking to gradually worm his way back to a high placing in GC over the next two weeks but his crash on Sunday and his efforts at 10th stage apparently got the best of him. He was shed at the final climb after attack by Nibali and Pinot that added another 48 seconds to his overall time.
All in all, the 11th stage was an eye candy of a race with a number of surprises!
