Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) didn't need to wait for an instruction in his radio earpiece when a clutch of Movistar jerseys massed on the front of the peloton as it rattled through Arezzo for the first time with 30 kilometres remaining on stage 8 of the Giro d'Italia.
Just 24 hours shy of a time trial where Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) was expected to put daylight between himself and the overall contenders, Alejandro Valverde opted to get his retaliation in first on the gravel climb of the Alpe di Poti.
When Valverde accelerated sharply just as asphalt gave way for gravel, Nibali was smartly onto his wheel. When it emerged that Dumoulin had been caught out by the injection of pace, Nibali didn't need an invitation to join the onslaught. A 15 second gap quickly became 30 and then 60. By the time the group of favourites dropped back into Arezzo, Dumoulin had conceded 1:10.
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"I took the climb at the front thanks to Agnoli, because we realised that Movistar were thinking of doing something. When Valverde's attack came, I got on his wheel and then when I saw the pink jersey had been dropped, I did a few turns on the front," Nibali said afterwards.
At the start in Foligno, reporters' questions focused primarily on whether the pre-race favourites would manage to manage their losses to Dumoulin in Sunday's Chianti time trial. Nibali's coach Paolo Slongo estimated that the Sicilian would be pleased to limit the damage to "between 50 seconds and 1:30." Despite the haul up the Alpe di Poti, nobody, not even Nibali, anticipated that the stage would force such a shake-up of the general classification.
"I didn't think that the stage would be as difficult as that in the finale, but Movistar interpreted it very well. We were very alert and we collaborated with them," Nibali said. "Initially the others in the group didn't want to work, but then [Esteban] Chaves and [Steven] Kruijswijk came and supported us. Once everybody saw that Dumoulin was losing time, there was a bit more collaboration."
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