Dumoulin shows his climbing class to extend Giro lead

Race leader Tom Dumoulin showed he is ready for the final week in the mountains with a superb ascent to take his second stage win of the 2017 Giro d'Italia.

Dumoulin continues Giro success

Dumoulin has been in the maglia rosa since his sensational time trial victory on Tuesday and his triumph atop Santuario di Oropa was just as impressive.

The shortest stage on this year's Giro was relatively flat until the final 11 kilometres and that is when the action started, with Dumoulin flexing his muscles despite the increasing gradients.

Team Sky's Diego Rosa was first to try his luck on Oropa but he was quickly swallowed up by a group containing Nairo Quintana and Ilnur Zakarin.

Quintana couldn't pull clear

Pre-race favourite Quintana then made his move but he was unable to pull clear and eventually Dumoulin's group reeled him in.

Rather than settle into a rhythm with men around him Dumoulin opted to push, Zakarin trying to stay with him only to see the Dutchman find one last bit of energy to take the stage win and what could be crucial bonus seconds in the general classification battle.

"Of course you dream about hitting back," said the race leader. "I knew that they would attack and they did. It was very hard but I was always with my focus and I was quite relaxed.

"I couldn't follow the first attack from Quintana so I had to follow my own pace a little bit. I came closer and closer and in the end I still had something left for the finish. It was incredible."