The 2015 Giro d'Italia began on 9 May, and stage 11 occurred on 20 May. The race began with a team time trial from San Lorenzo al Mare to Sanremo.
Legend Denotes the leader of the General classification Denotes the leader of the Mountains classification Denotes the leader of the Points classification Denotes the leader of the Young rider classification
Stage 1 9 May 2015 — San Lorenzo al Mare to Sanremo, , team time trial (TTT)
The 2015 Giro started with a team time trial in Liguria, a feature included every year since the 2006 Giro d'Italia. The course was flat, but almost entirely along the Riviera del Flori cycle path. It concluded on the Lungomare Italo Calvino in Sanremo, finish to the Milan–San Remo race between 2008 and 2014. were believed to be the favourites, having won the Tour de Romandie team time trial a week before the race started, along with , the winners of the previous year's team time trial in Belfast who desired a win in the team time trial by including multiple time-trial specialists in their lineup.
were the first team to start, with teams starting after every five minutes. They recorded a time of 20' 25" but their time was only good enough for the second slowest time on the stage. Their time was shortly bettered by , who were 11 seconds faster. The first competitive time was set by . The Kazakh team set a time of 19' 39" which was good enough to hold the lead for an hour. Some of the favourites for the stage like , and set competitive times but they could not knock Astana off the hot seat. Eventually, only two teams were able to beat Astana's time. The first team to beat their time was . They stopped the clock in 19' 26", a time which was good enough for the stage-winning time. The only team to go closer to 's time was , who were the fastest at the checkpoint. However they faded in the second half of the course, handing the win. Simon Gerrans was first over the line, making him the first leader, although he claimed later that he would not keep it for long, and that Michael Matthews would probably take it in the sprint the next day.
As for the general classification contenders, Alberto Contador of was the best-placed rider as he was only 7 seconds off the lead. His advantage over Fabio Aru of was 6 seconds and his advantage over Rigoberto Urán of was 12 seconds. Richie Porte of suffered the most as he lost 20 seconds to Contador and he lost significant time to other general classification contenders.
Stage 1 result TeamTime 1 2 + 7" 3 + 13" 4 + 19" 5 + 21" 6 + 25" 7 + 25" 8 + 26" 9 + 27" 10 + 27"General classification after Stage 1 RiderTeamTime 1 2 + 0" 3 + 0" 4 + 0" 5 + 0" 6 + 0" 7 + 7" 8 + 7" 9 + 7" 10 + 7"
Stage 2 10 May 2015 — Albenga to Genoa,
The first road stage was also held along the Ligurian coast. On the parcours, there were two intermediate sprints, in Savona and Varazze, along with a fourth category climb of the Pratozanino, but other than that, there were only one other ascent that ended still with more than to go. As a result, it was still expected to result in a sprint in Genoa, where two laps of a circuit were completed, to complete the day's running.
The day's breakaway was formed by five riders, consisting of 's Marco Frapporti, 's Łukasz Owsian, Eugert Zhupa of , Giacomo Berlato of and Bert-Jan Lindeman representing . They managed to obtain a lead over the peloton of nine minutes, however, it was then that the peloton, led by started pursuit to ensure that their riders would keep the pink jersey. En route, Frapporti took maximum points at both sprints ahead of the mountain sprint.
Owsian soon attacked for the mountain sprint, however, Lindeman countered from his wheel and took maximum points, granting him the blue jersey. At this point, the five were about three minutes ahead of the peloton. soon worked hard to bring the field back together and the breakaway was finally concluded when Owsian, the last surviving breakaway rider, was caught with to go. Several crashes took down some sprinters and domestiques but the biggest time loss was suffered by Domenico Pozzovivo as he was caught behind the crashes, and lost 1' 09" in the process. André Greipel was the first to sprint for the win but he was overtaken by Moreno Hofland, who in turn was overtaken by Elia Viviani of . Viviani ultimately beat Hofland to the sprint by about a wheel, granting him the red jersey. Finishing 7th on the stage as the highest placed rider, Michael Matthews took the maglia rosa although he did not pick up any time bonuses and was still tied on time with Simon Gerrans, Simon Clarke and Esteban Chaves. Matthews also took the white jersey as the best young rider.
Stage 2 result RiderTeamTime 1 2 + 0" 3 + 0" 4 + 0" 5 + 0" 6 + 0" 7 + 0" 8 + 0" 9 + 0" 10 + 0"General classification after Stage 2 RiderTeamTime 1 2 + 0" 3 + 0" 4 + 0" 5 + 7" 6 + 7" 7 + 7" 8 + 7" 9 + 7" 10 + 13"
Stage 3 11 May 2015 — Rapallo to Sestri Levante,
The first medium-mountain stage was held in the Cinque Terre area. The course was relatively short, but included two climbs - the third-category Colle Caprille and the second category Barbagelata, the summit of which came with to go. It had a long descent, which concluded ahead of the finish in Sestri Levante. There were also two intermediate sprints, in Torriglia and in Montebruno. Pre-race analysis suggested that the stage would either be won by a breakaway, or an attack on the second category climb.
The day's breakaway was formed by 25 riders. The best placed men in the breakaway were Simon Clarke and Esteban Chaves of as they were at the same time as maglia rosa wearer Michael Matthews before the beginning of the stage. would set a hard tempo in the peloton and the breakaway was only allowed to have a maximum lead of around 3 minutes before the peloton chipped into the lead. During the climbs in the middle of the course, several sprinters fell off the back of the peloton. During the climb of the second category Barbagelata, the breakaway was reduced to around a dozen riders before Pavel Kochetkov of took maximum points at the summit of the climb, ensuring he would take the blue jersey.
During the descent, Domenico Pozzovivo crashed out of the race and he was taken to hospital. Italian television reported that Pozzovivo was moving and breathing for himself when he was taken away in the ambulance. He was bleeding from wounds to his face. As the stage wore on, Adam Hansen, on his 34th birthday, attacked out of the breakaway and he was joined by Maciej Paterski and Clarke. They caught Kochetkov with around left but the peloton caught them with around to go. In the mass sprint, Fabio Felline sprinted for the win but it was Matthews who passed him with to go to take the stage win. As a result of the time bonuses, he extended his general classification lead to 6 seconds over Clarke.
Stage 3 result RiderTeamTime 1 2 + 0" 3 + 0" 4 + 0" 5 + 0" 6 + 0" 7 + 0" 8 + 0" 9 + 0" 10 + 0"General classification after Stage 3 RiderTeamTime 1 2 + 6" 3 + 10" 4 + 10" 5 + 17" 6 + 17" 7 + 17" 8 + 23" 9 + 23" 10 + 23"
Stage 4 12 May 2015 — Chiavari to La Spezia,
The second of three consecutive medium mountain stages took the riders on a short and technical course. The stage featured a series of climbs - the third category Colla di Velva, the uncategorised Passo del Bracco, the third category Passo del Termine and the third category ascent of Biassa. After passing through the finish line for the first time, the riders took a lap on a circuit where they tackled the ascent of Biassa before taking on the descent and flat ride to the finish. The finish at La Spezia was last featured in 1989 when Laurent Fignon won the stage en route to winning the Giro.
For the second successive day, the breakaway featured a huge number of riders as 30 riders joined the break. The biggest surprise from the breakaway was Roman Kreuziger of , one of Alberto Contador's main lieutenants in the mountains. Despite Kreuziger's presence, the breakaway was allowed to establish a lead of around 10 minutes. soon dictated the pace on the ascent of Passo del Termine and their pace decimated the peloton. Several riders fell off the back of the peloton including the maglia rosa wearer Michael Matthews. 's pace was able to reduce the peloton to only around 20 riders and the breakaway's advantage continually decreased as the stage wore on.
As the final climb to Biassa was approaching, Davide Formolo made his move for , whose general classification hopes was dashed when Ryder Hesjedal was distanced on the climb of Passo del Termine. Giovanni Visconti and Amaël Moinard tried to follow his move but Formolo continued to increase his advantage. On the climb of Biassa itself, the first attack of the general classification contenders was made when Fabio Aru accelerated. He was followed by Contador and Richie Porte while Rigoberto Urán found himself unable to follow their pace. The trio of general classification contenders were able to catch the remnants of the breakaway while Formolo continued to stay out front. Visconti and Moinard eventually failed in their bid to catch Formolo as the chase group caught them. Formolo eventually soloed to his first professional win by 22 seconds ahead of the remaining breakaway riders plus the trio of general classification contenders. Aru tried to sprint for bonus seconds but it was Simon Clarke and Jonathan Monsalve who took the remaining time bonuses. Clarke celebrated as he crossed the finish line, unaware that Formolo already won the stage, before Visconti pointed out that Formolo was the stage winner. Clarke later clarified that his jubilation was for having continued his team's dominance at the Giro. Clarke, however, took the maglia rosa as the new leader of the general classification.
Stage 4 result RiderTeamTime 1 2 + 22" 3 + 22" 4 + 22" 5 + 22" 6 + 22" 7 + 22" 8 + 22" 9 + 22" 10 + 22"General classification after Stage 4 RiderTeamTime 1 2 + 10" 3 + 17" 4 + 17" 5 + 23" 6 + 23" 7 + 29" 8 + 31" 9 + 31" 10 + 37"
Stage 5 13 May 2015 — La Spezia to Abetone,
After four tough stages, the race headed to its first mountain finish. The stage was expected to be the first showdown between the main contenders as they battled it out for time gaps in the general classification. Before undertaking the final climb, the riders tackled the climb of Foce Carpinelli first into the stage. Following the descent, the course gradually went uphill with around left before the climb of Abetone officially started from the finish. The early segment of the climb averaged only 2.8% before the riders undertook the most difficult section of the climb which averaged 7.2%. The finishing kilometres approaching the summit eased up a bit, averaging 4.7%.
No riders were able to break clear until after when the day's breakaway was finally formed, consisting of 's Axel Domont, 's Serghei Țvetcov, 's Silvan Dillier, 's Sylvain Chavanel and 's Jan Polanc. The peloton let their advantage go up to around 11 minutes before led the chase. As the stage wore on, it became more likely that the breakaway could survive to the end. The breakaway continued to work together and by the time they started the climb of Abetone, they had an advantage of 5' 33" over the peloton. Chavanel was the first to attack in the breakaway but he was chased down by his fellow breakaway companions. Țvetcov was eventually gapped by Chavanel's attack.