Frenchman John Gadret made a late attack to win the 144km 11th stage of the Giro d’Italia from Tortoreto Lido to Castelfidardo yesterday as Spaniard Alberto Contador retained the leader’s pink jersey.

With the peloton hunting down a 12-man breakaway group, AG2R’s Gadret sprung from the pack with just 400m left and overhauled Spain’s Daniel Moreno to win by several bike lengths.

Joaquin Rodriguez took second and Giovanni Visconti was third while Saxo Bank’s Contador finished fifth on the stage.

The stage started with a minute’s silence dedicated to Belgian rider Wouter Weylandt who died after a crash on the Bocco mountain pass during the third stage on May 9. His funeral was held yesterday in his home town of Ghent.

Weylandt’s Leopard Trek team subsequently pulled out of the Giro.

“I want to dedicate this victory to Weylandt. I was thinking all day about his funeral,” said Gadret.

“Even though I’m not Belgian I wanted to win for him. Cycling is a big family, since he died I haven’t stopped thinking about his fall. I wanted to do something to pay homage to him and I’m happy.”

There were a number of attempted breakaways in the early part of the stage before a 12-man group finally got away.

Chief among them was Frenchman Christophe Le Mevel who started the day third in the standings, 1:19 behind Contador.

With Le Mevel in the group the peloton never let them get more than just a couple of minutes up the road and when the chase began, the time came down quite quickly.

In the end, Le Mevel paid for his earlier efforts as he lost nine seconds and dropped to fourth.

Kanstantsin Sivtsov, of Belarus, is second in the overall standings while Italian Vincenzo Nibali has moved up to third.