Movistar's Giovanni Visconti won the 15th stage of the Giro D'Italia
The weather and particularly snow had meant changes to the route and this stage was changed to a 145km course finishing at the Marco Pantani Monument, some 4.25kms further down the Col du Galibier, after leaving Cesana Torinese.
Reports were suggesting that the riders had neutralised the climb of the Col du Mont Cenis.as the Giro popped into France.
When racing finally got under way, Stefan Pirazzi and Chalapud contested the King Of The Mountains points and Pirazzi took the 15 points.
Peter Weening (Orica GreenEdge), Matteo Rabottini (Vini Fantini),
Stefano Pirazzi (Bardiani Valvole - CSF Inox), Giovanni Visconti (Movistar Team), Robinson Chalapud (Colombia), Francesco Bongiorno (Bardiani Valvole - CSF Inox). and Miguel Angel Rubiano Chavez (Androni Giocattoli) then broke taking a 5.55 lead.
They were 3.30 ahead going into the final thirty kilometres as they took on the slopes of the Col du Telegraph climb before Visconti took over and took the points.on the summit to move into the top four in the KOM competition.
With eleven kilometres to go, Visconti, who had a 45 second lead, collected the points at the Intermediate sprint.
Snow was starting to fall at the finish line whilst back down the road, Rabotini was slowly clawing Visconti back.
However, Visconti held on and won in a time of 4.40.48.Thirty seven seconds later, Carlos Betancur came home followed by Niemec, Majka and Quarte.
Nibali, Evans and co all came in safely to see Nibali leading going into the rest day.