Crash, dispute at Giro d' Italia finish line

Wednesday's stage covered a flat 136 miles between Giffoni Valle Piana and Frosinone. The peloton suffered a couple of crashes out on the course, but it was the finish that created the controversy.

The sprinters had gone to the front as the peloton entered the town, with pink jersey holder Paolo Bettini, Luca Mazzanti, Dario David Cioni, Michele Scarponi and Baden Cooke racing to the finish, according to reports at CyclingNews.

Bettini crossed the finish line first, but the race judges ruled that he had forced Cooke into the barriers, where he crashed. (Cooke had tried to pass Bettini on the inside; he's OK.)

 The ruling downgraded Bettini of the Quick.Step team to fourth on the day, and awarded the win to Mazzanti of Ceramic Panaria team. Bettini held onto the overall leader's jersey, however, and is 13 seconds ahead of Danilo Di Luca of  Liquigas-Bianchi.

Discovery Channel Pro Cycling team's Paolo Savoldelli, the 2002 Giro winner, dropped from 5th to 29th in the overall standings; another Discovery rider, Volodymyr Bileka (Ukraine) sits just ahead at 28th.

The highest ranking American, Tour of Georgia winner Tom Danielson (Discovery team), is in 56th overall, 1 minute and 53 seconds behind the Bettini.

Unless you're watching the live webcast at OLNTV, there's nothing on TV here until Saturday and Sunday, when OLN televises the bicycle racing from 5-7 p.m. (ET). Live reports are available at CyclingNews and VeloNews, and early results are available from the race sponsor, La Gazzetta dello Sport.