As Rigoberto Urán (Sky) made his move with 8km to go on the summit finish on Altopiano del Montasio at the Giro d’Italia today, Valerio Agnoli was Nibali’s sole Astana teammate left in the group of favourites and once the 28-year-old had chased for as long as he could the Maglia Rosa was left to battle for himself.

Nibali coolly responded to every dangerous assault, though, as his rivals were dropped one by one, but - with Betancur (AG2R) of no imminent menace overall - allowed the Colombian to escape in the closing stages. Betancur could not catch Urán, however, with the 2012 Olympic silver medallist going on to take his first ever Grand Tour stage.

With the time bonus on the line, Nibali’s lead over Evans opened up to 41 seconds, while Urán’s victory saw him leapfrog teammate Wiggins into third overall.

When talking to the press after the stage, Vincenzo Nibali remained as determined, focused and cool as he had looked all day on his bike. Commenting on the contenders today, Nibali said: “We expected Urán to attack, but we had a good advantage so we didn’t expend too much energy chasing him down. Wiggins lost some time today, but he recovered well. Scarponi, who we might have expected to gain time today, lost it. Evans looked solid and is becoming one of my most serious rivals.”

Despite pointing to Evans (BMC) as his main adversary, Nibali was diplomatically reluctant to rule out Wiggins (Sky). “The Giro is still very long and there are some very important stages to come. For many today, the stage was hard, because you sometimes pay for your day of recovery. Urán and Wiggins are at 2 minutes 04 seconds and 2 minutes 05 seconds, so I’ll have to keep an eye on them both. Then I don’t know – it depends on Sky’s tactics. We’ll try to intuit their moves.”

Before heading off to a massage, Nibali also found time to praise his teammates: “The team worked hard in the early part of the stage, then Kangert and Agnoli pulled on the last climb. Tiralongo is recovering after being ill, but now Aru has fallen ill. The wet and cold of the Florence stage knocked him out. We’ll try to get him back in the next days. But Agnoli was always close to me today, dropping back to catch his breath when Sky were riding fast at the front.”