Davide Bais takes shock breakaway win for first career victory on stage 7 at the Giro d'Italia as the GC battle stalls

Davide Bais took a shock breakaway win on stage 7 of the Giro d'Italia as the expected general classification battle stalled behind.

Stage 7 was expected to be the first serious mountain challenge of this year's race. Andreas Leknessund trying to keep the lead of the Giro d'Italia, for Remco Evenepoel it was about understanding if he's recovered from the prior crashes and a whole array of riders were looking forward to the 45-kilometre final ascent.

Hoping it would be a day for the breakaway was Davide Bais (EOLO-Kometa), Henok Mulubrhan (Green Project-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè), Simone Petilli (Intermarché - Circus - Wanty) and Karel Vacek (Team Corratec - Selle Italia).

With Petelli the closest in the general classification, some 7:49 down on Leknessund, no one was that keen to put a big effort in on the front of the peloton and their lead quickly rose to around 9 minutes.

As the breakaway began to tackle the first of three classified climbs of the day and their lead pushed up towards 10 minutes, Mulubrhan started to struggle and found himself unable to hold the wheel of his companions.

With 50km to go the leading trio still had over 10 minutes on the peloton but with a 45km ascent still to come the stage win was by now means in the bag.

As the climbing began their lead had in fact stretched out further to 11:50 as Team DSM continued to set a relatively calm pace at the front of the peloton.

Finally, just as the leading trio would have begun to dream of the biggest win of their careers, the likes of UAE Team Emirates and EF Education-EasyPost came to the front of the peloton and put some impetus into the chase.

Mark Cavendish was immediately dropped as the peloton hit the final climb. His former teammate Geraint Thomas suffered a mechanical for the second straight day putting him under undue stress. Thankfully for the INEOS Grenadiers man though Filippo Ganna was once again on hand to help Thomas back into the peloton.

For the second time of the day, Thibaut Pinot emerged from the front of the peloton to take the maximum, remaining King of the Mountains points on offer behind the breakaway.

As the time gap between breakaway and peloton dropped to within the 7:49 Petilli needed to snatch the Maglia Rosa, attention turned to the stage win for the Italian. Back in the peloton for the current race leader, Andreas Leknessund it was still a case of waiting, watching and hoping he could hold on if/when the GC riders began to attack.

With 15km to go there was still 7:09 between the break and the peloton meaning the stage win seemed surely destined for one of the leading trio.

As the breakaway went through the 10km to go banner the gap had dropped slightly but they still lead by 6:33. With a grand total of zero professional wins between the three of them, the excitement must have been growing.

Back down the road the peloton seemingly had no interest in really taking on the chase, with the GC riders content to wait for another day.

Petilli was the first of the break to make a testing move, although his mini attack 6km from the line was quickly cancelled out.

Another acceleration by Petilli with 3.5km to go saw Vacek struggle to stay in contact but the Czech rider managed to fight back into contention.

As the leading trio entered the final 1.4 kilometres, surrounded by a wall of snow, Vacek decided it was time he made his move off the front. Again though the attack was nullified.

Through the 1km to go banner and the three leaders still couldn't be separated. With a sprint finish set to decide the stage it was Vacek on the front. Petilli came around him but it was Bais who's moved proved decisive as the Italian took a life-changing, first career win ahead of Vacek in second.

The expected GC battle just never came as the all rolled over the line together.

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