Edvald Boasson Hagen looked like a potential winner of today's tough Giro d'Italia stage when he was one of four riders to escape in the finale. However, the climb became a bit too tough for the Norwegian who drifted back and finished outside the top 20.

Edvald Boasson Hagen and Dario Cataldo moved into the top 10 at the Giro d’Italia on an active fifth stage which also saw Ben Swift feature in the day’s main breakaway.

Swift had forged clear in an 11-man move soon after the peloton had rolled out of Taranto, and the Yorkshireman outsprinted Elia Viviani (Cannondale) and Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Sharp) in the intermediate sprint to strengthen his fifth place in the points classification.

When it became clear the break’s days were numbered, Swift dropped back into the safety of the bunch, and everything came back together in the last 14km as the peloton readied themselves for back-to-back climbs at the finish.

Boasson Hagen and Cataldo positioned themselves at the head of the peloton on the first ascent to Viggiano, and once they had navigated a tricky descent in the wet conditions, Salvatore Puccio led them back onto the final climb of the day.

Both riders stayed right in contention until the last 200 metres, but couldn’t contest the finish which saw Diego Ulissi emerge victorious. The Lampre-Merida rider timed his late attack to perfection and crossed the line with a full second to spare ahead of Cadel Evans (BMC Racing) and Julian Arredondo (Trek Factory Racing).

Cataldo, who finished 13th, and Boasson Hagen (29th) were both awarded the same time as the second and third-placed riders which meant Boasson Hagen climbed to sixth place in the overall standings, and Cataldo ninth.

As a result, Boasson Hagen stays 35 seconds back on Michael Matthews after the Orica-GreenEdge rider defended his pink jersey, while Cataldo is just 14 seconds further adrift.

Sports Director Dario Cioni was pleased with the efforts his riders had shown when TeamSky.com caught up with him back at the hotel, and he believes the stage will follow a similar pattern on Thursday.

"It was a good day all-in-all. We had hoped Edvald would have been able to sprint for the win, but he had to follow a number of moves which meant he couldn't quite go when the last of those late attacks went. That said, he did well to bring back the gap to the Evans group, and Dario rode well to finish in that group as well and not lose any time.

"The guys followed the plan really well today. We spoke before the start about getting Swifty in the break, and he managed to do that in order to go for those intermediate sprint points. He cleaned up there but it was just too bad that Viviani was in there with him to take second, because that meant he moved into the points jersey. Beating guys like Viviani and Farrar will have been good for Ben's confidence though and that'll bode well for the sprints to come.

"Bernie [Eisel] did a lot of good work during the early part of the race and Salvatore was fantastic towards the end. It was a pity that Kosta [Siutsou] and Sebastian [Henao] got stuck behind some crashes near the end, but they rode well to limit their losses and the Giro is still on for them.

"We were lucky today, none of our riders were involved in any crashes and they'll be good to go again tomorrow.

"The last climb is longer than it was today but I think the same guys that were up there today will be there or thereabout again."