ROBERTO FERRARI HAS won stage 11 of the Giro d’Italia after yet another late crash ruined the chance of a proper bunch sprint.
Ferrari, who caused a major crash on stage three of this year’s Giro when he swerved in front of world champion Mark Cavendish, reacted the best today, after riders fell on the final major corner, to sprint away and win.
The 29-year-old Italian from Androni won stage 11 ahead of QuickStep’s Francesco Chicci and Thomas Vaitkus of GreenEdge, while Cavendish finished fourth after being held up just enough by the crash to ruin his chances of victory. It did not take long on Wednesday’s 255-kilometre stage from Assisi to Montecatini Terme for a breakaway group to attack.
After just 15km, six riders got away from the peloton. That group lost a rider 70km later when Astana’s Simone Ponzi dropped off but Stefan Denifl (Vacansoleil), Manuele Boaro (Saxo Bank), Mickael Delage (FDJ-BigMat), Olivier Kaisen (Lotto) and Adrian Saez (Euskaltel) stayed out in front.
With 30km to go Boaro and then Saez rode away from the leading group and, although the latter was caught by the peloton soon after, the Saxo Bank rider held on until the final lap through the streets of Montecatini, thanks, primarily, to the hard work of Liquigas. The final few kilometres saw the main sprinters vie for position but, with 500 metres left, a sharp right-hand turn caused a couple of riders to fall, which disrupted the bunch sprint.
Vaitkus was the best-placed after the crash but was overhauled by Ferrari in the final 100m, while Cavendish made a late dash to grab fourth spot.
Wednesday’s result leaves Joaquim Rodriguez of Katusha in the pink jersey as overall leader.
Garmin-Barracuda’s Ryder Hesjedal is second, 17 seconds behind Rodriguez, while Paolo Tiralongo and Roman Kreuziger (both Astana), along with Benat Intxausti (Movistar), round out the top five in the overall standings.
