The first mountainous stage of the Giro d'Italia to Mount Etna was more than expected, with an early crash costing Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) over 12 minutes and Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) over 4 minutes on the 18km climb to the finish. The overall race was shaken up even more than expected.

Jonathan Caicedo (EF Pro Cycling) took the stage win from a breakaway group, but missed leader Maglia Rosa. He and Joao Almeida (Deceuninck-Quick Step) had the same time, but thanks to a one-tenth of a second tiebreaker recorded in Saturday's opening time trial, the Portuguese took the pink jersey. Caicedo missed the pink jersey by 0.28 seconds.

Thomas started the stage in third place overall, 23 seconds behind teammate and race leader Filippo Ganna. However, after a severe crash by Bidon on a neutral rollout from Enna, Thomas was unable to maintain his pace due to his injuries and finished 12:19 behind Caicedo.

With Ineos worried about Thomas, the Mitchelton-Scott team led the peloton, perhaps to set up a stage win for Yates. However, he lost contact with 10km to go and finished 4:22 behind Caicedo. He is now 3:46 behind, nearly 3 minutes ahead of overall rivals Vincenzo Nibali (Trek-Segafredo), Jakob Fuglsang (Astana), and Steven Kruijswijk.

Almeida is wearing pink, Caicedo is a close second, and Pero Bilbao (Bahrain-Merida) is third overall at 37 seconds.

Wilco Kelderman (Team Sunweb) attacked late in the stage and finished 12 seconds ahead of Nibali and the other GC riders, finishing fourth overall with 42 seconds.

Nibali was 6th, 55 seconds behind, Domenico Pozzovivo was 7th, 59 seconds behind, Fuglsang was 9th, 1:13 behind, and Kruijswijk was 10th, 1:15 behind. Rafal Mayka (Bora-Hansgrohe) was 11th in 1 hour 26 minutes.

American Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates) is in eighth place overall with 1 hour and 11 minutes, while Tao Geoghegan Hart is currently the best placed of the Ineos Grenadiers riders in 24th place overall with 3 hours and 12 minutes.