Leonardo Bertagnolli of the Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni team won today’s 161km stage from Forlì to Faenza out of a breakaway that took the front of the race at the 18km mark. Belgian Serge Pauwels from the Cervelo TestTeam came in second with Columbia-High Road’s Marco Pinotti finishing off the podium.

No changes major changes were made on the General Classification today aside from Levi Leipheimer’s (Astana) jump over Franco Pellizotti (Liquigas) into third, but there was plenty of action during what turned out to be a difficult day in the Italian heat.

The break of the day went away early in the race and since it didn’t contain any General Classification riders the peloton was content to let it go.

Break Riders:
Lars Ytting Bak  (Saxo Bank)
Leonardo Bertagnolli (Serramenti)
Alessandro Donati (Acqua & Sapone)
Nikita Eskov (Katusha)
Mauro Facci (Quick-Step)
Daniel Navarro Garcia (Astana)
Hector Gonzalez Baeza (Fuji-Servetto)
Andriy Grivko (ISD)
Pablo Lastras Garcia (Caisse D’Epargne) 
Marco Marzano (Lampre-N.G.C.)
Matteo Montaguti (LPR)
Jose Serpa Perez (Serramenti) 
Serge Pauwels (Cervelo TestTeam)
Marco Pinotti (Columbia-High Road)
Gorazd Stangelj (Liquigas)
Eduard Vorganov (Xacobeo Galicia) 

The only cause for concern behind was with current Maglia Verde jersey holder Stefano Garzelli, with Andriy Grivko working to close the gap to the Italian.

Denis Menchov’s Rabobank team is worked hard to honor the Maglia Rosa, but their work started to show as Liquigas took over the front of the race pouring the speed on just before the penultimate climb of the day. The Italian team managed to split the peloton in two by forcing thepace on a descent, while the breakaway’s advantage remained at over 6 minutes.

On the climb up Monte Casale it became clear what the strategy was for Liquigas as Ivan Basso rode the group of favorites off of his wheel, the only man able to stay with him being Stefano Garzelli (Acqua & Sapone).  Behind the group of favorites tried to get organized with Di Luca’s LPR team coming to the fore as the duo worked well together to quickly gain 20 seconds.  By the time they crested the peak they had an advantage of 40 seconds with a technical descent ahead.

With the day not expected to factor on the GC, the chasing group now realized the more difficult Monte Trebbio ahead of them could make a difference for the pair of former Giro d’Italia winners.  Liquigas team tactics played out perfectly as they dropped back their man Stangelj from the breakaway to help close the gap for Basso.  The climbs had shattered the break to pieces leaving stragglers along the route.

The pair continued to drive up the climb looking much better than the chasing peloton, with Acqua & Sapone dropping Alesandro Donati from ahead to try to help Garzelli move up the GC picture.  Back in the favorites group Lance Armstrong and Yaraslav Popovitch came off leaving all of the favorites alone aside from Rogers who had a strong ride from Lovkist pushing the pace.

Ahead Marzano was dropped by to two leaders of the front group Pauwels and Bertagnolli – they crested the final climb with 25k to go and around two minutes in hand over a chasing Basso and Garzelli who had company in the form of Grivko and Perez holding onto a minute lead over the chasing group of favorites.

Di Luca attacked the favorites group trying to shake Menchov, but the Russian was too strong and closed the gap quickly with the rest of the favorites also able neutralize the attack.  However, the move by Di Luca brought the gap to Basso and Garzelli down to 20 seconds.

Further ahead the leading pair were not working well together, with Pauwels discussing the situation with his team car.  His teammate Carlos Sastre was closing in from behind with the now intact group of favorites with Basso and Garzelli back into the fold.

At 10km to go Leonard Bertagnolli was alone looking strong as he pushed towards the finish, while the remnants of the break were closing – Bak, Manzano, Pauwels, and Marco Pinotti were less than a minute off and working well together.

With 5k to go it was 37 seconds to the leader with the quartet trying to pull him back in the fold – at 3k he still had his lead and was powering along comfortably.  Behind, Grivko tried his hand again attacking the group of favorites, but leaving it too late for a spot on the podium.

With a kilometer to go Bertagnolli had the win in his sights looking back just to make sure, and crossed the line alone with his first Giro d’Italia stage win complimenting his other Grand Tour stage victory in La Vuelta back in 2005.  Behind Pauwels took an easy second place with Bak in third.

Tomorrows stage from Pergola to Monte Petrano will be a big test for the General Classification.  With four categorized climbs, 237km in distance, and the possibility of the Italian heat there will surely be some big time gaps where the winner of this year’s Giro may emerge.

Stage:
1. Leonardo Bertagnolli (ITA) SDA 161km 4hr 18min 34sec
2. Serge Pauwels (BEL) CTT at 0:54sec
3. Marco Pinotti (ITA) THR 0:54
4. Lars Bak (DEN) SAX 0:54
5. Marco Marzano (ITA) LAM 0:56
6. Andriy Grivko (UKR) ISD 1:27
7. Mauro Facci (ITA) QST 1:49
8. Tadej Valjavec (SLO) ALM 1:51
9. Eduard Vorganov (RUS) KGZ 1:51
10. Kevin Seeldraeyers (BEL) QST 1:56
11. Thomas Lövkvist (SWE) THR 1:56
12. Marzio Bruseghin (ITA) LAM 1:56
13. David Arroyo (ESP) GCE 1:56,
14. Danilo Di Luca (ITA) LPR 1:56
15. Michael Rogers (AUS) THR 1:56
16. Denis Menchov (RUS) RAB 1:56
17. Stefano Garzelli (ITA) ASA 1:56
18. Ivan Basso (ITA) LIQ 1:56
19. Levi Leipheimer (USA) AST 1:56
20. Jose Serpa (COL) SDA 1:56

Overall:
1. Denis Menchov (RUS) RAB 62hr 54min 23sec
2. Danilo Di Luca (ITA/LPR) at 0:34s
3. Levi Leipheimer (USA) AST 0:43
4. Franco Pellizotti (ITA) LIQ 2:00
5. Carlos Sastre (ESP) CTT 2:52
6. Ivan Basso (ITA) LIQ 3:03
7. Michael Rogers (AUS) THR 3:05
8. Marzio Bruseghin (ITA) LAM 5:26
9. David Arroyo (ESP) GCE 6:01
10. Thomas Lövkvist (SWE) THR 6:26
11. Tadej Valjavec (SLO) ALM 6:49
12. Stefano Garzelli (ITA) ASA 7:15
13. Lance Armstrong (USA) AST 8:28
14. Yaroslav Popovych (UKR) AST 9:00
15. Damiano Cunego (ITA) LAM 9:43,
16. Jose Serpa (COL) SDA 9:52
17. Kevin Seeldraeyers (BEL) QST 11:08
18. Fredrik Kessiakoff (SWE) FUJ 14:17
19. Kanstantsin Siutsou (BLR) THR 14:40
20. Francesco Masciarelli (ITA) ASA 17:02