The squad was dead last of 23 teams in the stage 1 team time trial, losing more than a minute to the winners HTC-Highroad, a result later described by team captain Antón as a bit ugly. Antón finished with the group of overall favorites in the selective fifth and seventh stages, and was solidly eighth in stage 9 when eventual Giro champion Alberto Contador won the day and first took the race lead, but sat only in 11th place as a result. The squad was, as could be expected, far more successful in the second and more mountainous half of the race. Antón's ride on stage 13 ending at Grossglockner in Austria moved him into the top ten overall for the first time, at seventh place, though he was again distanced from Contador at the front of the race and lay over four minutes down. The next day's stage ended at Monte Zoncolan, one of the steepest climbs in all of professional cycling. Antón rode with the top overall riders until about to go, when he attacked and broke free. Riding for a time with Contador and Joaquim Rodríguez, who had bridged up, Antón put in another attack with left to go, and surpassed the remaining riders from the morning breakaway to occupy first position on the road. He rode alone to the finish for the stage win, by 33 seconds over Contador in second place. Antón revealed after the stage that he had never ridden the climb before, having only seen it on television. He admitted it was a risk to attack for victory from as far out as he did and that he suffered badly in the final few kilometers, but was still able to hold on. Antón called the Zoncolan climb mythical and absolutely the hardest climb for a bike race. The result installed him into third place overall, still more than three minutes down on Contador but only a single second behind Vincenzo Nibali for second place. Antón mused that he may try to hold on to his podium placing to the conclusion of the race.