Today's stage didn't look that bad on paper, but as is often the case in the Giro, the hills were harder than they seemed. The course consisted of three laps of a 37km loop that started and finished in Castiglione. Riders had to contest four category 3 climbs and two cat 2's. The climbs were not long, but they were very steep.

The race started a bit nervously with a lot of fighting for position on the narrow, twisty roads. Again, as in stage two, Sarah Ulmer (Team S.A.T.S) was in fine form and fired off multiple attacks in the first few laps of the course before finally getting away for a 60km solo breakaway effort. She was looking strong and help a gap of 2'15" until 40km to go, but her status as a rider and her position of GC led the team of the Maglia Rosa, Nicole Brandli to reel her back in. Her gap slowly dropped until she was finally caught with 10km to go on the final mountain sprint climb.

Countering her move was a group of nine riders who took their advantage on the hill. Within the group were the major GC riders and climbers. Their lead didn't last for long however and they were caught with five kilometres to go opening up the perfect situation for somebody to make a late move. Melchers took the opportunity and made it to the line eight seconds in front of the quickly approaching bunch. Giorgia Bronzini (Chirio-Forno d'Asolo/Rider) won another bunch sprint, this time for second place with Olga Sliousareva (Nobili Rubinett.-Menikini-Cogeas) taking third place. Brandli finished safely again to keep the Maglia Rosa for a