However yesterday saw both Jurgen Van den Broeck and Domenico Pozzovivo on the offensive and with a whole host of strong climbers her Rujano's current lead of just over a minute on most of them is not enough to be overly defensive.
A lot of riders go on the attack in the early stages of this one.
The breakaway group contains: Fredy Montaña Hector Duenas Nevado Arnold Jeannesson Lars Petter Nordhaug Mauro Santambrogio Joeri Adams Ivan Santaromita
Evgeni Petrov Andrew Talansky Enrique Salgueiro Nairo Quintana Alberigo Passalacqua Nikias Arndt
The results from the minor hotspot points in the first half of the stage are:
KoM 1: Montana - > Quintana - > Petrov
KoM 2: Nordhaug - > Jeannesson - > Santamorita
Pts 1: Arndt - > Jeannesson - > Nordhaug
No real danger of this break getting a big gap as Saab-Scania are enjoying their moment in the limelight. With 80km to go the lead is just under five minutes and reducing.
We actually are using four loops as we circle and await the final climb patiently. Using the penultimate loop's small climb four riders launch an early sortie.
John-Lee Augustyn Przemyslaw Niemiec Brice Feillu
and Fabio Duarte
are our four brave riders looking for a long one launched at just under 70km to go. Duarte and Fiellu lost more time yesterday, whilst Niemec and Augustyn made the split.
Once again though Pokerstars are in control of the race at the business end and keep the gap to these four to under a minute.
In the breakaway their lead continues to tumble, Jeannesson decides to breakaway solo before the last two sprint primes.
It's a nice move to take those two primes the first he takes ahead of Talansky and Arndt. By the second prime though it is just Jeannesson solo ahead of the Pokerstars and Saab led pack.
Jurgen Van Goolen and Henry Raabe go over the sprint placing positions as we now turn onto the major climb of the day.
Jeannesson is caught just as we start the climb, meaning it's a straight out race up this 14 kilometre 8% beast.
Pokerstars and Saab have positioned themselves at the front of the pack, but as we scan down the road there is no sign of Rujano. Meanwhile Domenico Pozzovivo is floating forward tracked by Vladimir Efimkin and Jose Alarcon
Clearly the T.CS team do not want to get caught out again and the same applies to Alarcon after two poor days in the opening stages. Pozzovivo though is intent on attacking and moves clear just Duarte who was still well forward from his earlier move can latch onto the Italian's tail.
With still over 11km of climbing it's quite an early move, but this is how Pozzovivo took his stage in the Giro and he has noted that several climbers were out of position at the start of this climb. Alarcon looked like he was tracking Pozzovivo but does not want to go into the red yet, still he goes to the front of the pack as Pokerstars scramble backwards for their leader.
Rujano is way back with Magno Nazaret also fairly lazy about his positioning for the umpteenth time this season.
Rujano sees gaps opening up ahead of him and launches a panicked attack to get across to the lead chase group. Nazaret follows him behind rather more calmly.
Pozzovivo is doing all the work ahead with Duarte desperately trying to stick to the Italian's wheel. The lead continues to edge out with 8.5km left Pozzovivo has ground out 1 minute and 20 seconds.
Alarcon is doing all the lead work in the chase group, it is surprising that he is losing ground to Pozzovivo. Behind him there seems to be shuffling around for the Venezualan's wheel with Marzano now taking point. Van den Broeck is right there with Colorado, Efimkin, Stetina and Eltink.
With 7.5km to go Pozzovivo senses Duarte breathing heavy and tries to rid himself of his wheelsucker!
This doesn't quite break the elastic to Duarte who is really digging in here.
Behind Alarcon shrugs his shoulders and pulls off the front, Marzano rather reluctantly goes to the front. Van den Broeck noticing that Rujano and Nazaret are beginning to get close to him decides to accelerate.
Marzano though smothers the attack very quickly.
Colorado, Alarcon, Eltink, Nazaret, Efimkin, Rujano and Kolesnikov have moved clear in this chase group with Brice Fiellu, Augustyn and Stetina struggling to hold on.
The lead duo continue to move clear as Duarte is still hanging on grimly to Pozzovio as they go under 5km to go.
Pozzovivo is on a super day here with the lead timed at nearly two minutes, this could be a race winning effort.
Behind having spent the first half of the climb clawing his way up to the leaders Rujano attacks the lead chase group.
It is beginning to explode behind as Alarcon, clearly below his very best, tries to track his fellow Venezualan.
As two South Americans try to attack, another explodes as Duarte finally slips back from Pozzovivo. He now needs to concentrate on maintaining second place on the climb.
Pozzovivo clearly is buoyed on by finally losing his shadow and is dancing on the pedals still looking strong.
Also coming into his own is Nazaret as Alarcon cannot quite get up to Rujano he takes over, with Van den Broeck, Marzano, Colarado and Eltink looking on. The T.CS Bank boys Efimkin and Kolesnikov now distanced.
As they wind their way through a skiing village Alarcon accelerates round a bend only Nazaret can stay with him, Van den Broeck and Marzano hold the top of their handlebars looking for power.
Rujano is up the road and hasn't been able to make much impression, the lead has come down slightly to just under 1 minute and 40 seconds but it is not going to be enough for Rujano to maintain his advantage over Pozzovivo.
Pozzovivo has basically ridden this whole climb himself and has not been quite as strong in the last sections and looks to push all the way to the line.
It's a superb victory by the Italian who is having a fantastic year with than Giro podium showing he has what it takes.
Duarte hangs on for second finishing 1.07 back from Pozzovivo, he looked to repair the damage of yesterday and managed to finish ahead of Alarcon which means he will be ahead of him on GC too.
Alarcon is third, but it was only a late attack clearly the Venezualan is having a bad tour. Rujano and Nazaret sprint for 4th and 5th just 16 seconds behind Alarcon.
Van den Broeck, Marzano, Eltink and Colorado come in at 2.14 to Pozzovivo, but tellingly less than a minute behind Alarcon and close enough to Duarte to hold them on GC.
Stetina finishes just behind the T.CS Bank Duo, he will slot in at 10th on GC and also just behind the Venezualan on the youth classification.
With the flattest stage of the Tour of Slovenia to come Pozzovivo has taken control of the race with his second stage win. Rujano's team have done a great job of chasing breaks and causing splits but Rujano was poorly placed on the lower slopes of this climb. That said he did enough to move to second on GC with the also poorly placed Nazaret who showed good stamina at the end. Alarcon came third on the day and moves to ninth on GC, which is a bit of a letdown for the usually dominant Aker Solutions rider.
Points
Two stage wins has Pozzovivo favourite to get the points jersey, Van Hummel will be in the mix in the sprint tomorrow but may have to give way to Chicchi depending on Saab tactics.
Mountains
Pozzovivo moves into a share of 3rd, but Agudelo looks set to win the mountains jersey perhaps making up for a disappointing performance of his team leader in the overall.
