Later that year, he sailed to victory in stage 8 of the Giro d'Italia, attacking on the slopes of the Colle Molella, away from the finish. His nearest pursuant, Spaniard Benat Intxausti of , completed the stage with a 23 seconds deficit on Pozzovivo. He finished the Giro eighth overall, being always very competitive in the mountain stages. In June, Pozzovivo prevailed in the queen stage of the 2.1 rated Tour of Slovenia, a course peppered with climbs. Pozzovivo broke away with Janez Brajkovič of and somewhat surprisingly, beat Brajkovič in the sprint. With that operation, he took the overall classification leader's jersey thanks to a six-second lead over Brajkovič, but lost it the next day in the individual time trial, where Brajkovič bested him by ten seconds. Pozzovivo had to settle for the second place of the Tour.