Giro D'Italia 2015: Stage 7 Results, Overall Standings and Highlights

Lampre Merida's Diego Ulissi celebrated his return to the Giro d'Italia in epic fashion, winning Stage 7 on Friday in a reduced sprint.

The long stage and a number of climbs in the finale tore the peloton apart, and as predicted, the sprint specialists couldn't keep up. The Giro's official Twitter account shared this shot of the finish line:

Tinkoff-Saxo made matters worse by pushing the tempo during the finale, and by the time the peloton arrived at the final straight, every single rider was visibly struggling. Ulissi had the freshest legs and won his first stage of the 2015 Giro after winning two last year.

The Italian only recently returned to competitive cycling after a lengthy ban for doping, according to the Associated Press (h/t Yahoo Sports), and couldn't have asked for a better way to celebrate his return.

Pink jersey Alberto Contador comfortably survived the stage after Thursday's heavy crash, and while it's too early to assume his injured left arm won't hold him back in the high mountains, the Spaniard should still be considered the favourite for this year's Giro. Here are the results for Stage 7:

Rider	Team	Time
1 Diego Ulissi (Ita)	Lampre-Merida	7:22:21
2 Juan Jose Lobato (Spa)	Movistar Team	Same Time
3 Simon Gerrans (Aus)	Orica GreenEdge	Same Time
4 Manuel Belletti (Ita)	Southeast Pro Cycling	Same Time
5 Enrico Battaglin (Ita)	Bardiani CSF	Same Time
6 Sonny Colbrelli (Ita)	Bardiani CSF	Same Time
7 Fabio Felline (Ita)	Trek Factory Racing	Same Time
8 Grega Bole (Slo)	CCC Sprandi Polkowice	Same Time
9 Kevin Reza (Fra)	FDJ.fr	Same Time
10 Sergey Lagutin (Rus)	Team Katusha	Same Time

Team Sky shared the profile of Friday's stage. The short, steep climbs in the finale promised fireworks:

As shared by Michael Tomalaris, the Giro organisers learned their lesson after Thursday's big crash involving several riders. In order to avoid another incident with the fans, the fence near the finish line was raised significantly:

The first week of the 2015 Giro has been filled with surprises and drama, and unsurprisingly, the peloton decided against another furious day of chasing. An early break saw five riders take a lead well over 10 minutes, and the pace behind them was remarkably slow.

BMC and Lotto Soudal did most of the work in the pack, but the teams riding in support of their sprinters knew there was little chance of Friday's stage ending with a mass sprint. Michael Matthews and Philippe Gilbert looked like the early favourites for the stage, but according to cycling writer Daniel Friebe, the former struggled on Friday:

Marco Bandiera took advantage of the slow pace behind him to win most of the intermediary sprints with an eye on the red jersey, while Elia Viviani did enough to pass Andre Greipel in the standings. The Team Sky man was involved in an odd incident with Giacomo Nizzolo that saw the latter shove the Team Sky man, something event organisers will undoubtedly study a little closer.

As shared by Lotto Soudal's Twitter account, the leading group still had a massive lead over the peloton with 100 kilometers to go:

That lead soon started to drop, however, and the peloton caught the leading group with 20 kilometers still ahead of them. The first of several steep climbs followed almost immediately after, and with Tinkoff-Saxo pushing the tempo, the pack started to split.

Several top riders, including Tom Boonen and Alessandro Petacchi, were dropped on the first climb, but a number of sprinters managed to survive and position themselves for a possible mass sprint.

The top stars for the general classification all pushed several riders forward to avoid a break that could cost them valuable time, and Greipel was buzzing with excitement as he just about managed to cling on at the back of the group. If things got organised inside the final five kilometers, he was the strong favourite.

But Tinkoff-Saxo pushed even harder in the final part of the climb, dropping the German, and in the uphill sprint, Ulissi managed to stay ahead of the pack and grab an emotional win. 

Here's a look at the general classification:

#	Rider Name (Country)	Team	Result
1	Alberto Contador (Spa)	Tinkoff-Saxo	27:42:00
2	Fabio Aru (Ita)	Astana Pro Team	0:00:02
3	Richie Porte (Aus)	Team Sky	0:00:20
4	Roman Kreuziger (Cze)	Tinkoff-Saxo	0:00:22
5	Dario Cataldo (Ita)	Astana Pro Team	0:00:28
6	Esteban Chaves (Col)	Orica GreenEdge	0:00:37
7	Giovanni Visconti (Ita)	Movistar Team	0:00:56
8	Mikel Landa Meana (Spa)	Astana Pro Team	0:01:01
9	Davide Formolo (Ita)	Cannondale-Garmin Pro Cycling Team	0:01:15
10	Andrey Amador (CRc)	Movistar Team	0:01:18

There were question marks surrounding Contador's left arm after Thursday's crash, and the Spaniard partly answered those during Stage 7. Contador couldn't even lift his arm to put on his pink jersey on Thursday, so the fact that he survived over 260 kilometers on the road is a positive sign.

As shared by Eurosport's Robert Hatch, the two-time Tour de France winner told Borja Cuadrado he was in a lot of pain throughout the stage:

"

Contador tells @BorjaCuadrado he experienced a lot of pain & after 4hrs didn't know where to put hands. "I have difficult days ahead of me"

— Robert Hatch (@robhatchtv) May 15, 2015"

The real test for Contador will come on Saturday, when the favourites for the general classification will finally encounter the first true mountain stage. Expect to see plenty of attacks early, particularly from the lesser time trialists, as well as a big assault from someone like Fabio Aru on one of the major climbs in the finale.