Enrico Battaglin provided Bardiani-CSF with their second win in as many days as he took the plaudits on stage 14 of the Giro d’Italia.

The young Italian outsprinted Dario Cataldo (Team Sky) and Jarlinson Pantano (Colombia) to take the victory on the summit finish at Oropa, while race leader Rigoberto Uran (Omega Pharma-Quickstep) found himself in difficulty, losing ground on all of the other general classification contenders.

A large break of 21 men escaped early in the stage, and would largely survive until the finish. Alongside Battaglin, Cataldo, and Pantano were Valerio Agnoli (Astana), Axel Domont (Ag2r-La Mondiale), Marco Frapporti and Emanuele Sella (Androni-Giocatolli), Martijn Keizer (Belkin), Manuel Quinziato (BMC Racing), Paolo Longo Borghini (Cannondale), Mattia Cattaneo and Jan Polanc (Lampre-Merida), Tim Wellens (Lotto-Belisol), Jonathan Monsalve (Neri Sottoli), Julien Vermote (Omega Pharma-Quickstep), Ivan Santaromita (Orica-Greenedge), Perrig Quemeneur (Europcar), Albert Timmer (Giant-Shimano), Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Sky), Nicolas Roche (Tinkoff-Saxo), and Danilo Hondo (Trek Factor Racing).

The group worked well together, building a lead of more than ten minutes over the peloton, led by Omega Pharma-Quickstep, the team of race leader Uran.

At the top of the first major climb of the day, the Alpe Noveis, it was Tim Willens who outsprinted Jonathan Monsalve for the mountains points, moving himself up to second in the fight for the blue jersey, only 15 points behind Julian Arredondo (Trek Factory Racing).

A poorly-surfaced and technical descent followed to the base of the next climb, the second category Bielmonte, and with a steady pace being set in the main peloton, the gap to the leaders remained at over eight minutes.

As Omega Pharma-Quickstep continued to attempt to control the peloton, the attacks began, as Pierre Rolland (Europcar) jumped clear with teammate Bjorn Thurau and Riccardo Zoidl (Trek Factory Racing). They were joined by 2012 Giro winner Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Sharp) and Gorka Izagirre (Movistar) to form a five-man chasing group.

Meanwhile attacks were also flying out of the main break, and it was Nicholas Roche who took off a couple of kilometres below the summit, which he crested alone and began the descent towards the final climb of the day.

The Irishman looked to have a good lead, but was caught halfway down the long descent by the rest of the breakaway, which had now seen its lead cut to 4’35” over the Rolland group, and 5’30" over the main peloton.

With 16km to go it was time for the non-climbers to attack, and sure enough Albert Timmer and Manuel Quinziato jumped clear, quickly opening a lead of around a minute which they consolidated on the sedate early slopes of the final climb.

But disaster struck for Quinziato suffering a mechanical with 8km remaining and leaving Timmer to plough a lone furrow as Boasson Hagen led the chase in what remained of the breakaway.

The Dutch rider had a 48 second advantage with 6km to go, but that began to fall as Dario Cataldo, Mattia Cattaneo, and Jarlinson Pantano counter-attacked behind.

More important attacks were occurring further down the climb, as Domenico Pozzovivo (Ag2r-La Mondiale) leapt off the wheel of his teammate Alexis Vuillermoz. Nairo Quintana (Movistar) was the first to respond, and he was followed by the rest of the GC contenders, but when Pozzovivo went again moments later, it was only the Colombian who was able to follow.

Maglia rosa Rigoberto Uran was in trouble, but was able to count on superb teamwork by Wout Poels to keep the gap to the duo of Quintana and Pozzovivo, who were working well together, under control.

At the head of the race Albert Timmer was steadily being reeled in by Cataldo and Pantano, and as soon as the catch was made it was the Sky rider who went on the attack. Pantano was followed immediately, but Timmer wrestled with the bike and as the pace slowed he was able to latch on to the chasing Cattaneo and regain contact beneath the flamme rouge.

It seemed to be between these four men for the stage win, but then, at 700m to go, a green Bardiani jersey appeared around the corner, and 200m later Battaglin had joined the leaders.

After looking strong all day, it was no surprise to see Cataldo opening up the sprint at 200m to go, and with only Pantano seeming to respond, the stage win looked to be going to the Italian.

Having been slow to jump on Cataldo's move, Battaglin found himself with work to do, but agonisingly closed the gap, squeezing past in the final 20m to take the second Giro stage win of his career.

The remains of the breakaway held on to take the top 12 places, but Hesjedal and Rolland collaborated well to take a handful of seconds over the serious GC contenders, led home by Quintana, who sprinted away from Pozzovivo in the final 200m.

25 seconds back from Quintana came the floundering Uran, who endured a difficult day and lost time on all of the other GC contenders, even being distanced by his teammate Poels in the final 50m, who inadvertently dragged Cadel Evans clear to gain a few seconds.

Tomorrow the race heads for its second summit finish of the weekend at Montecampione, and we will surely see Rigoberto Uran put under more pressure after his signs of weakness today.