Kanstantsin Siutsou hit out in the day's breakaway on stage 18 at the Giro d'Italia to take eighth on the stage. The Belarusian had the legs to force his way into a 12-rider move which went on to contest the stage victory in Verbania.

The main test of the day came in the form of the first-category Monte Ologno and Siutsou proved to be among the strongest, making his way over the summit in a lead quartet. On the descent the group came back together and it was Philippe Gilbert (BMC Racing) who seized the initiative, attacking immediately with 19km to go to take a solo victory.

Siutsou crossed the line in the group fighting for third, one minute and one second back, after a barrage of late attacks on the run-in. Team Sky enjoyed mixed fortunes on the day, with Leopold König retaining sixth place overall, but a number of the team were held up by a crash ahead of the climb.

Salvatore Puccio, Sebastian Henao, Elia Viviani, Vasil Kiryienka and Mikel Nieve were all either held up or went down in the pile-up after the pace had ramped up in the peloton. All five riders were able to re-mount and finish the stage before being looked over by the team's medical staff.

The medium-mountain stage produced unexpected fireworks with race leader Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) attacking shortly after the crash, blowing apart the front of the race. König settled into the chasing pack behind, but a relentless Contador pushed on to take a further 1:13 on his nearest rivals, extending his advantage out to 5:15 in the process. With two big days of climbing to come König holds sixth, 10:44 back on pink.

"It was a team plan to get into the break today," Siutsou told TeamSky.com after the stage. "In a Grand Tour if you get an opportunity it is always nice to try. You never know what can happen. I thought with three hard days, it was likely today that a breakaway was going to go to the finish. With two uphill finishes I think Alberto will still want to finish a stage. It's also good to have someone up front to protect the team in case I needed to come back.

"It was hard to get into the break. Everybody knew it was a day for the break and everybody was looking to try. I was really tired and from experience I know that when you are really tired this is the best moment for a break to get away. On the climb I was with a good group but if you attacked on the climb it was a long way to go to the finish.

"There were quite a few counter-attacks and some tactics. Gilbert picked a really good moment to go. I tried once to close but everybody was looking around. Then it was game over for the stage win. The next two days are really hard but they will be hard for everybody. Let's see what happens."