Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) and Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) will dominate the morning's headlines, but Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha) quietly underlined his intentions for this Giro d'Italia with an assured performance on the first mountaintop finish at Roccaraso that saw him place third on the stage and move up to third on general classification.
The Russian followed the pink jersey Dumoulin when he attacked three kilometres from the summit and, together with Domenico Pozzovivo (AG2R-La Mondiale) and earlier escapee Jakob Fuglsang (Astana), they gained time on all of the other podium contenders on the final haul to the line.
"At the beginning of the final climb I did not feel so good. There was a strong wind, but Pavel Kochetkov protected me and later on I started to feel better," said Zakarin, who now lies 28 seconds off the maglia rosa.
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Zakarin was one of the revelations of the 2015 season when he claimed overall victory at the Tour de Romandie and soloed to Giro stage victory in Imola during his first campaign at WorldTour level, and he has been a model of consistency thus far in 2016, placing 4th at Paris-Nice, 7th at the Volta a Catalunya, 5th at Liège-Bastogne-Liège and 4th at the Tour de Romandie.
- Profile: Who is Ilnur Zakarin?
- Zakarin prepares to co-lead Katusha at Giro d'Italia in 2016
- Zakarin soars to Paris-Nice Queen Stage win
- Zakarin wins Tour de Romandie
- 2015 Giro d'Italia stage 11: Zakarin motors to win on F1 track in Imola
Although this Giro is just the second Grand Tour of Zakarin's career, the 26-year-old was identified as a danger man by Nibali in the build-up to the race, and he has done little to dispel the notion in an opening week where he has scarcely put a pedal stroke out of place, even landing on the right side of the split on the road to Benevento on stage 5.
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