Giulio Ciccone has claimed the stage-15 Giro d'Italia win, as Richard Carapaz retained the overall lead.

The 15th stage of the famous cycling race is an 177-kilometre mountain trek between Rivarolo Canavese and Cogne.

Italian Ciccone attacked from a group of breakaway riders 4km into the final climb — a 22.4-km effort at an average gradient of 4.3 per cent — and never looked back.

Ciccone — who wore the Tour de France yellow jersey for two days in 2019 — had plenty of time to celebrate, crossing the line one minute and 31 seconds ahead of Santiago Buitrago of Colombia.

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Spain's Antonio Pedrero took third place, two minutes and 19 seconds off the pace.

It is Ciccone's career-third Giro D'Italia stage win.

Ecuador's Carapaz survived an early scare when he was involved in a pile-up, but escaped unscathed and was pulled back into the peloton by his Ineos-Grenadiers team mates.

It was then a comfortable ride for the 2019 champion, who retained a seven-second overall lead over Australian Jai Hindley as the top contenders kept their powder dry.

Portugal's Joao Almeida sits in third place overall, 32 seconds behind Carapaz.

Monday is a rest day on the Giro.

Reuters/ABC Sport