Giro d'Italia 2014 - Stage 7

The Giro d'Italia 2014 tried to dust itself down and start over on stage seven after a couple of horrific crashes had decimated the peloton on stage six. Stage seven took the race 211 kilometres from Frosinone to Foligno, in what looked like a sprint finish for the peloton before the race went for a weekend of climbing in the Apennine mountain range.

Despite it being a relatively flat stage, a breakaway with some notable names went away. Winner Anacona of Lampre-Merida was joined by Nicola Boem of Bardiani-CSF, Robinson Chalapud of Team Colombia, Bjorn Thurau of Team Europcar and Nathan Haas of Garmin-Sharp, who were still trying to salvage their Giro after Dan Martin's crash on the opening stage.

Weather conditions were improving throughout the day, and the breakaway actually built up a decent lead that was struggling to come down, even though the team of the race leader Orica-GreenEDGE were putting in the work on the front. After the summit of the only climb of the day however the sprinters teams started to come through and do the work for their quick men.

The break held three minutes with twenty kilometres to go, but the teamwork that had built their lead was trickling away with their lead, and in the end they started attacking each other. With five kilometres to go the sprinters' teams were doing their best to create their trains with the break only a few seconds ahead.

They were soon swept up, leaving the way for a fast, hectic finale. It was an incredibly close sprint with many protagonists but it was the Frenchman Nacer Bouhanni who took his second win of the race, and his second stage win in a grand tour, ahead of Giacomo Nizzolo and Luka Mezgec. Michael Matthews finished fourth to retain his lead in the maglia rosa, with the general classification contenders circling behind him.