Giro d'Italia 2014 - Stage 10

The Giro d'Italia 2014 came out of its second rest day to find a flat day with a small climb near the finish, on a 173 kilometre race from Modena, where they had spent the rest day, to Salsomaggiore Terme. Cadel Evans came out of the rest day in pink, and would have had little worries about retaining his lead in the contest into stage eleven.

A two man breakaway thought they should try their hand, even if their chances of winning were slim, and it was the ever active Marco Bandiera of Androni Giocattoli-Venezuela who was joined by Andrea Fedi of Neri Sottoli. Bandiera took the full points at the intermediate sprint, and when the peloton came through it was Nacer Bouhanni of FDJ.fr who led the way.

The duo's lead was allowed to get over eight and a half minutes, but the peloton were keen to have a sprint finish, with flat finishes being a rare thing once again on the Giro. Their lead was quickly brought down, but the peloton were disrupted by a crash in the centre involving Tinkoff-Saxo's Ivan Rovny and Cadel Evans' teammate Yannick Eijssen. 

Rovny got up and rode on, but it was sadly the end of Eijssen's Giro d'Italia, another man falling victim to the crashes that have marred the race. The peloton raced on and it was Sky who put the pressure on on the final climb, briefly distancing Nacer Bouhanni. The peloton looked set for a big sprint, when Tyler Farrar of Garmin went careering across the road causing a big crash.

The bunch were reduced to around ten riders, and it was FDJ.fr's quickman Nacer Bouhanni who continued his post-Kittel dominance of the Giro sprint stages. He beat Giacomo Nizzolo and Michael Matthews to the win. Cadel Evans and the other main favourites all survived the crash and the day to stay up there on the general classification.