contenders made attacks, but all failed to produce any significant time gains. The eleventh stage resulted in a sprint finish won by Cipollini, as the race prepared to enter the higher and more difficult mountains. The twelfth stage witnessed the day's breakaway survive the encroaching peloton by two seconds. Fabiano Fontanelli won the sprint to the line between the surviving members of the original eight-man lead group, it was his fifth victory of the season that came from participating in a breakaway. Panaria–Vinavil's Pavel Tonkov won the thirteenth leg because of a move he made with three kilometers left on the final climb Prato Nevoso. Piotr Ugrumov was the only rider to mark Tonkov, but he was dropped shortly before the finish and crossed the line two seconds after Tonkov. Rebellin crossed the line 33 seconds after Tonkov and ceded the lead to Tonkov. During the mountainous fourteenth stage, the group of general contenders re-grouped after efforts by Panaria–Vinavil to bring Tonkov up to the leading group before starting the ascent of the Col d'Izoard. On the climb, Pascal Richard attacked and rode solo over the mountain, while Chiappucci made an effort to bridge the gap but failed to reach Richard. Richard won the stage, Chiappucci crossed the line 43 seconds after Richard, while several race contenders finished just seconds after Chiappucci. 1990 Giro winner Gianni Bugno won the fifteenth stage as the top ten positions of the general classification remained the same and Chiappucci being the only rider to gain time on the rest of the top ten, gaining two seconds. The sixteenth leg's breakaway initially started with nineteen riders. Alexander Gontchenkov attacked out of the group and rode solo to the finish to win the stage, while time gaps between general classification contenders again did not change. Laurent Roux and Nicolaj Bo Larsen started the breakaway during the seventeenth stage and did not get caught by the peloton, staying out in front for . The peloton was gearing up for a chase with around to go, but race leader Tonkov suffered an issue with his bike and chose to wait for the team car to get another bike. This incident caused the field to slow their pace and wait for the leader, which caused the group to cross the line over sixteen minutes behind the winners. The next stage was won by Cipollini by means of a sprint