Andrey Amador (Movistar) took the biggest win of his career by winning the first high mountain stage of the Giro d'Italia on Saturday as once again an escape group made it through to the end. Jan Barta (NetApp) continued the strong work of his small German wildcard team to claim second, with Androni Giacattoli's Alessandro De Marchi third.

"It is a dream to win in the Giro, especially when it is one of the mountain stages like this," said Amador. "I am proud. This victory shows that if you work, the results follow. This year I have done many things, mentally and physically."

"It was a long hard day. I tried to manage what little I had left, and I'm very happy for the victory."

The pink jersey changed shoulders again, passing back to Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Barracuda), who had jumped from the chasing field of favourites with about four kilometers to go. The Candian will go into the stage 15on Sunday with a nine-second lead over Katusha's Joaquim Rodriguez.

"I felt good. It felt easy when the guys were setting the tempo," Hesjedal said to TV cameras after finishing. "When some guys started to accelerate a bit, I knew it eased off after 3km, and I figured I'd give it a go and test myself. I wasn't really thinking of anything except putting in an effort and seeing how the other guys did."

The top favourites had hung together up the two very lengthy climbs, with the group getting continually smaller but holding on to most of the top names to the end. Things only fell apart near the end, with Hesjedal's successful attack. Rodriguez and Ivan Basso (Liquigas) both tried but failed, to follow.

Amador, 25, had previously finished third on the Giro's 12th stage. The Costa Rican, who is now in his fourth year with Movistar, has ridden the Giro once before, and was second-to-last overall in last year's Tour de France.

He was the victim of a brutal attack whilst training in Costa Rica in January of 2011. His bike was stolen and he was severely beaten and left for dead in a river bed. However, he recovered quickly enough to ride in the Mallorca Challenge the next month.

Amador wins it

Another successful break

The stage got off to a blazing fast start, covering 50.8km in the first hour. Four riders decided to spare themselves the mountains and were not at the start: Mark Renshaw (Rabobank), Matt Goss (Orica-GreenEdge), Brett Lancaster (Orica-GreenEdge) and Juan Jose Haedo (Saxo Bank).

The high initial speed meant that it took a while for the day's break to establish itself. But finally, with 60km behind them, Olivier Kaisen (Lotto Belisol), Jan Barta (NetApp), Andrey Amador (Movistar), Nelson Oliveira (RadioShack-Nissan), Matteo Montaguti (AG2R-La Mondiale), Nikolas Maes (Omega Pharma-QuickStep), Alessandro De Marchi (Androni Giocattoli) and Pierpaolo De Negri (Farnese Vini-Selle Italia) took off.

The field let them go, and the gap was over 12km as they approached the first climb of the day. The category 1 Col de Joux has an average gradient of 7 percent, but the climb is over 22km long.

The group took a 13-minute lead into the start of the first climb. Barta jumped from the group on the ascent in the rain on the wet road. The weather deteriorated rapidly as everyone ground his way up the long climb. As Barta stretched his lead out to over 40 seconds, the group behind him fell apart.

As expected, Mark Cavendish fell back on the climb, but less expectedly, so did King of the Mountains Michel Golas (Omega Pharma-QuickStep).

Barta continued his lead, crossing the top of the climb alone. Behind them, Jose Rujano (Androni Giacattoli) and Damiano Cunego (Lampre) shot out of the group, with Cunego eventually going on alone as Rujano was swept back into the field.

Barta's efforts came to naught, as he was caught and passed on his cautious way down the mountain. Amador was the first to catch him and went on to build up a lead on his not-so-cautious descent.

The sun actually came out on the final ascent. Amador continued in the lead, about 30 seconds ahead of Barta, Montaguti, De Negri and De Marchi. Cunego also continued on his solo chase, slowly building up a one-minute lead over the field. But that fell to about 30 seconds, and he was joined by Amets Txurruka (Euskaltel) and Marzio Bruseghin (Movistar). Txurruka pulled away and soon Liquigas pulled the peloton past Cunego.

Amador took a 1:25 lead under the 15km banner, with De Marchi and behind him Barta giving chase. The peloton was over seven and a half minutes down.

De Marchi's efforts were successful, and he caught the Costa Rican with just over 11km to go. The field was about 40 riders strong at that point, with all the favourites still there and the gap dropping to the six-minute mark.

There seemed to be some disunity between the two leaders, as Amador didn't seem to want to co-operate with his rival. Five and a half minutes back, the peloton slowly shredded.

With less than seven kilometers to go, Barta caught up again with the two leaders. But the Czech was clearly paying for his efforts on the day, and left the lead work to the other two.

The field had shrunk again, and the gap kept coming down, as the fog and rain returned. The three leaders took a 3:26 lead into the final 5km.

Rujano attacked into the fog, but the field, now about 25 riders, caught him again quickly. Dozens of running fans accompanied the now much smaller field, led by Ivan Basso (Liquigas), as one Astana rider struck out at an interfering fan. Surprisingly, Rujano and Cunego dropped off the back.

That was the cue for attacks to start out of the field. Mikel Nieve (Euskaltel) and Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Barracuda) built up a small lead, and the Canadian then continued on alone.

That was too much for Rodriguez, who jumped in pursuit, quickly catching the Basque rider, with the rest of the field following as the gap to the leaders sunk to 45 seconds with 4km to go.

Hesjedal held on to his lead over a chasing group of eight, from which Astana's Roman Kreuziger had been dropped. Domenico Pozzovivo (Colnago - CSF Inox) tried to get away, and was caught as the three leaders turned up the speed on a flatter section in an attempt to retain their lead.

The trio crossed the one kilometre to go marker with Hesjedal not far behind. Barta opened the sprint, but Amador came from behind him to take it.

Hesjedal sailed away from his rivals, crossing the finish line only 20 seconds behind the top three. Paolo Tiralongo of Astana led the small group of favourites, including Rodriguez, in to the finish 46 seconds down, more than enough time to give Hesjedal the overall lead.

For riders just getting started — or those looking to get a new mountain bike without breaking the break — there are a few good options. We recently trail-tested 10 mountain bikes that cost $1,000 or less, and came away with some surprising finds.

If it's been five years or more since you last bought a mountain bike, you probably have a bike with 26-inch wheels. The trend these days is 'bigger is better' — and nearly all the models tested have 29-inch wheels. For those of you new to mountain biking — welcome! The benefits of 29-inch wheels are plentiful: you can roll over obstacles more easily, you have more suspension in your tires with the larger volume of air, and you can get better traction than with a 26-inch wheel.

BikeRadar sent out a five-man test crew over the course of a few days to test ride 10 bikes over and over on a 3-mile loop. Special attention was given to each bike's elements of control — the brakes, the suspension and the tires.

At this pricepoint, bike companies are limited in what types of parts, suspension forks and wheels they can use. But, as BikeRadar technical editor James Huang likes to point out, geometry is free. Geometry means the angles of the bike's tubes, which have a huge impact on how the bike handles.

We tested the following 10 bikes:

• Trek Mamba, $959
• Diamondback Overdrive Comp 29dr
• Specialized Rockhopper 29
• Redline D610
• Jamis Exile Sport
• GT Karakoram 2.0
• Giant Talon 29er 1
• Cannondale Trail SL3
• Scott Scale 29 Comp
• Felt Nine Sport

Check BikeRadar next week for the complete results of the test.

The pad is made up of five variable foam densities, putting extra cushioning where it’s needed. A tough, abrasion-resistant textured centre section limits saddle slip, and lighter Lycra ceramic fabric sides keep muscles cool. 

With an innovative bib, a wonderfully upholstered pad and feather-edged leg grippers, these race worthy lightweight shorts offer everything you could ask for and will satisfy the most demanding wearer. They really couldn't have been given a better name. The only thing we're not sure about are the orange and white bib straps.

This article was originally published in Cycling Plus magazine, available on Apple Newsstand and Zinio.

Mark Cavendish (Team Sky) claimed his third Giro d'Italia stage win in what was the best bunch sprint of the race so far. It also demonstrated the Briton’s ability to remain cool and plot a way to the front when for several moments it seemed that his chance had gone.

After his Sky lead-out train had taken over the pace-making 1500m from the finish in Cervere, Cavendish found himself trapped against the left-hand barriers going into the final 500m when Orica-GreenEdge came through very close on their right to set up Matt Goss. For a couple of seconds, it looked like Cavendish would get lost in the pack behind the Australian and his team-mates, but the Manxman showed why he is a master at getting out of a tight situation as he picked his way through half a dozen riders.

With two Sky riders still ahead of him but not able to allow him past as Goss’s train steamed by, Cavendish moved across onto the wheel of Garmin’s Robbie Hunter as the sprint was launched. The world champion then jumped into a gap that opened up alongside the left-hand barriers, freewheeled momentarily as the gap closed, then once again saw daylight ahead and was off towards it in an instant.

At the line he was more than a bike length clear of Alexander Kristoff (Katusha), with Mark Renshaw (Rabobank) third. Goss finished in sixth place and lost significant ground on Cavendish in the battle for the red points jersey.

“It’s taken me a week to recover from the crash that I had but every day I’m feeling better and better,” said Cavendish.

Rodriguez - can he defend for another eight stages?

There was no change in the overall standings. Joaquim Rodríguez retained the pink jersey going into a crucial weekend of racing, featuring back-to-back summit finishes. In fact, the shortest road stage of the race was also the quietest so far, run at a steady rather than a frantic pace and with few incidents of note until the closing moments.

Martijn Keizer (Vacansoleil-DCM) and Francesco Failli (Farnese Vini) went clear in the opening kilometres, opening a gap of five-and-a-half minutes with 40km covered. That was as much leeway as they were allowed. Sky and FDJ joined forces to set a steady pace behind them. The two-man escape was finally nullified with 21km remaining.

From then on, the main interest was in seeing which sprint line could dominate the pace-making. In fact, no one team could for very long as all of the sprinters and overall contenders seemed determined to stick close to the front. At times there were three or four separate trains spearheading the front of the bunch.

The only break from this fascinating duel came on a rise with 6.5km left. Fabio Felline (Androni), Julien Berard (Ag2r) and Julien Vermote (Omega Pharma) went away, but were reeled in by the bunch after just 2km of freedom. Saxo Bank briefly took over at the front, only to lose out to Sky, who didn’t get their lead-out right but still came away with the win thanks to their sprinter’s quick thinking and blistering acceleration.

They're not wrong, either, with those Schwalbe Rocket Ron look-a-like treads being soft enough to engage with pedal pins as well as any Vans we’ve ridden in. They’re also way better equipped to hike up loose tracks than smooth soled shoes.

They’re not quite Five Ten’s Stealth rubber sticky, but they’re effective nonetheless. Also, not everyone wants the Sam Hill ‘frankenboot’ look. We love the cool, airy feel of this shoe with all that mesh for hot summer riding, and a chunky plati-rubber toe cap gives your no-doubt precious tootsies more protection than your average skate shoe. 

Build quality and durability is superb, which is just as well; as they look like trainers you’ll probably find, like we have, that you start leaving them on before, during and after the ride. Loads of colours, from plain old black to hmmmm-grey to full colour-blocking madness will make the trendies smile too. 

This article was originally published in What Mountain Bike magazine, available on Apple Newsstand and Zinio.