Diego Ulissi pips Juan Jose Lobato for victory

Ulissi, 25, secured the fourth Giro d'Italia stage win of his career after beating Spaniard Juan Jose Lobato (Movistar) and Australia's Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEdge) in a thrilling finale to the mammoth 264km stage seven from Grosseto.

Race leader Contador - who suffered a dislocated shoulder in a crash in the final of Thursday's stage six - soldiered through the pain barrier to retain his pink jersey after more than seven hours in the saddle.

The Tinkoff-Saxo rider leads Italy's Fabio Aru (Astana) by two seconds and Australia's Richie Porte (Team Sky) by 20 seconds in the general classification ahead of two tricky stages in the medium mountains.

Despite dislocating his shoulder in the pile-up that marred the finale of Thursday’s stage six, the race leader took to the start and vowed to battle on.

"I have worked incredibly hard for this race – too hard to just go home. I will give 100%. I’ll do everything that is possible to continue in this race,” Contador told reporters ahead of the marathon stage.

Riding on reduced tyre pressure to soften any vibrations on the road, the Spaniard rode in the middle of his Tinkoff-Saxo train and looked fairly comfortable – even riding out of the saddle with a firm grip at times.

FOUR-MAN BREAK: Italians Marco Bandiera (Androni Sidermec), Nicola Boem (Bardiani-CSF) and Pier Paolo de Negri (Nippo-Vini Fantini), and Bulgarian national champion Nikolay Mihaylov (CCC Sprandi Polkowice) broke clear of the pack 22km after the start in Grosseto to build up a maximum lead of 11 minutes on a cloudy day in central Italy.

Bandiera picked up maximum points in the two intermediate sprints while De Negri won the king of the mountain sprint atop the Cat.4 climb of Monterotondo before the peloton combined to reel in the break with 20km remaining.

Mihaylov was the last man standing after attacking on the first of two uncategorised climbs near the finish. The 27-year-old was swept up minutes later as the teams of the race favourites came to the front to keep their men out of danger.

ULISSI UNLEASHED: The Lotto-Soudal and Orica-GreenEdge teams of Andre Greipel and Gerrans led a streamlined peloton into closing moments of the seemingly never-ending stage to Lazio before Lampre-Merida made their presence known going under the banner for the final kilometre.

Sacha Modolo looked to be Lampre’s main man but it was Ulissi who proved a more-than-able Plan B after coming up the right side of the road to stave off the pressure from Lobato to win in a time of seven hours and 22 minutes.

Victory for Ulissi ended a turbulent year for the Italian, who tested positive for elevated levels of Salbutamol during last year’s Giro, in which he won two stages. Although banned for nine months, Ulissi was allowed to keep his wins after being able to prove that the substance came from his permitted use of Ventolin.

An emotional Ulissi collapsed on the tarmac after securing his team’s second win in the 98th edition of the Giro before being swamped by his jubilant team-mates.

Saturday’s mountainous 186km stage 8 from Fiuggi to Campitello Matese concludes with the race’s second summit finish and promises to revive the battle between the GC favourites Aru, Porte and – shoulder permitting – Contador.