Bardiani's Enrico Battaglin won the fourth stage of 96th Giro D'Italia today.
A long 246km stage from Policastro to Serra San Bruno was install for the riders who went into the stage with Katusha's Luca Paolini having both the Maglia Rosa leaders jersey and the Maglia Rossa points jersey but without Sandy Casar who has broken his wrist.
Seven riders in Johan Le Bon (FDJ), Francis Mourey (FDJ), Julien Berard (AG2R La Mondiale), Emanuele Sella (Androni Giocattoli), Miguel Minguez (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Ioannis Tamouridis (Euskaltel-Euskadi), and Pim Ligthart (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) were the first to escape with Sella taking over as virtual leader on the road as the escapees went 7.55 clear after 55kms.
With 95kms to go, the front seven riders started to attack each other and Ligthart, Le Bon and Minguez went clear with Julien Berard soon catching up to them.
At an average race speed of 40.458kmph, the front four had a gap of over five minutes on the peloton as the quartet headed towards the first intermediate sprint at Marinella which saw Ligthart takes the five seconds.
The quartet were now 3.35 ahead of the chasers and 5.02 ahead of the peloton with 75kms to go.
With the chasers caught, there was a crash, nine kilometres later, which took down Eric Capecchi and a number of others.
Into the final fifty kilometres at Maierato and Mingez was still out in front, 31 seconds ahead of Ligthart, Le Bon and Berard and 57 seconds ahead of the peloton as the first rain of this year's Giro started.
Mingez was caught with 42.1kms to go as David Millar encountered a mechanical problem.
Argos Shimano's Patrick Gretsch went to the front as the race approached the Vibo Valentia and was joined by Sefano Pirazzi who took the points at the top of the climb ahead of Gretsch and Giovanni Visconti, who moved back into the King Of The Mountains jersey.
Marcel Mercato took the intermediate sprint with 19.1kms to go after getting clear but he only lasted for less than three kilometres before AG2R's Sylvain Georges took over in front.
Team Sky with Sir Bradley Wiggins looking comfortable, and Kanstantsin Siutsou, Rigoberto Uran and Sergio Henao working well, took up the fight to bring back Georges, who was 28 seconds ahead with 13.3kms to go.
Danilo De Luca caught Georges with 9.2km remaining as did a Colombian rider in Chalapud on the wet roads, which were throwing up thick mists.
Georges dropped back to the peloton as the gap to De Luca and Chalapud widened. The Colombian took the points at the summit ahead of De Luca and Visconti.
On to the run in to the finish and the nine second gap was still holding until the final kilometre when De Luca went with 900ms to go He was caught and it was 23 year old Enrico Battaglin of Bardiani, who sprinted to victory in a time of 6.14.18 ahead of Felline and Visconti.
https://twitter.com/giroditalia/status/331793853902368768/photo/1
Luca Paolini, who finished tenth, stays in the Maglia Rosa ahead of Uran. Bradley Wiggins is sixth.