Italy’s Domenico Pozzovivo maybe one of the small­est rid­ers in the pelo­ton but he proved he is one of big name rid­ers in this year’s Giro d’Italia by win­ning the stage to Lago Laceno near Naples.

The lit­tle Colnago-CSF Inox climber danced on the ped­als of his Colnago M10 bike on the steep­est part of the climb and quickly opened a sig­nif­i­cant lead. He stayed clear over the top of the climb to win alone with the cheers of hun­dreds of his most pas­sion­ate fans cheer­ing his name.

Pozzovivo comes from Policoro in the south of Italy and the stage to Lago Laceno is the most south­ern fin­ish of this year’s race. It was his first ever stage vic­tory at the Giro d’Italia and con­firms he could be an over­all con­tender for vic­tory in this year’s corsa rosa.

“I’m per­haps too lit­tle to think big, I’ll take things day by day and do as well as I can,” he said.

“I fin­ished ninth at the (2008) Giro d’Italia and was strong in the third week, so I’m con­fi­dent about the final week in the moun­tains this year’s Giro d’Italia. It’s not easy to stay at top form for a month but there are a lot of stages that suit me and even if I fade, I can still defend my posi­tion. But first of all I want to win another stage.”

Pozzovivo is now thir­teenth in the over­all clas­si­fi­ca­tion of the Giro d’Italia, just 55 sec­onds behind race leader Ryder Hesjedal of Canada.

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