Top 10 for Elia Viviani in Foligno

Elia Viviani sprints to 10th place on the seventh stage of the Giro d'Italia as Andre Greipel seals his second win in three days.

Elia Viviani sprinted to 10th place on the seventh stage of the Giro d'Italia as Andre Greipel sealed his second win in the space of three days.

Viviani was guided into contention as his team-mates kept Mikel Landa out of trouble on the fast approach to Foligno, and then freestyled his way into the mix as the race swept onto the closing straight.

Unfortunately though, Viviani was held up behind his rivals as Greipel launched his sprint and was unable to affect the outcome as the German outpaced Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek-Segafredo) and Sacha Modolo (Lampre Merida) for Lotto Soudal's third straight success.

The result had little bearing on the general classification so Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) maintained his 26-second lead over Jakob Fuglsang (Astana), with Landa still just 1min 8sec off the pace in 15th position.

The action had got off to a fast and furious start in Sulmona and only 50-or-so riders remained as the peloton crested the early category-two climb.

From that group, six riders then moved clear and things eventually calmed down, allowing the initial stragglers to regain their place in the pack.

Lotto Soudal, FDJ and Cannondale then joined forces to keep the escapees in check, and Stefan Küng (BMC Racing) was the final rider to be hauled back in the last 7km.

By then the lead-out trains had worked their way to the fore, but Marcel Kittel (Etixx - Quick-Step) lasted only a few more seconds before he suffered an ill-timed mechanical.

Team Sky made their presence felt as the flamme rouge beckoned, but it was Greipel who was celebrating after emerging from a technical finale to unleash another textbook sprint.

Cioni reaction

Back at the team hotel, Sport Director Dario Cioni admitted the day hadn't quite gone to plan but was keen to stress the positives as the mountains draw ever closer.

He told us: "It's difficult for Elia on these sprint stages because we're not able to offer him a full lead out. 

"Today's sprint was a bit messy as well because there was no dominant train. Elia was going to try and follow Kittel's wheel but he got a late puncture which meant he obviously wasn't there to do that. Elia got a bit boxed in at the end and that meant he couldn't go 100%. 

"He's still going to fight for the red jersey though, and there's three or four more sprint stages to come.

"As for the stage as whole - it was another hard day and the start was particularly tough. The race was split after 20km but Mikel was well supported and never under any real pressure.

"It was a long one, and the rain made it nervous at times, but everyone rode well and Mikel even gained nine seconds on Esteban Chaves (Orica GreenEdge) at the end, so that's a good thing for us."