Bitter Bettini gives up lead in Giro d' Italia

Although he left Celano as the race leader, he was still smarting after judges stripped him of a stage victory Wednesday for forcing Australian rider Baden Cooke to crash into the barriers at the finish.

So Bettini pulled an unusual move for a sprinter and race leader; he joined a breakaway of about 20 riders 22 miles into the race. Unfortunately for Bettini, the lead group broke apart on some climbs and his group of 8 was caught by the peloton within 11 miles of the finish at L' Aquila.

After a climb into L' Aquila, Danilo Di Luca (Liquigas-Bianchi) took the sprint and the leader's jersey from Bettini, who fell to second place overall, according to final results at CyclingNews.

The Discovery Channel Pro Cycling team led the peloton late in the stage to help team leader Paolo Savoldelli, who had fallen from 5th to 29th in the overall standings on Wednesday after being caught behind some road-choking crashes.

On Thursday, Savoldelli finished in the group just 2 seconds behind Di Luca. He moved up one place in the overall standings, 68 seconds behind the pink jersey. Another Discovery favorite, Boulder resident and Tour of Georgia winner Tom Danielson, is listed at 41st and 2 minutes out of first place.

CyclingNews and VeloNews provide up-to-date reports from the Giro, and results are also available at race sponsor La Gazzetta dello Sport. A live race video feed is available for at the OLN website, and OLN cable offers coverage of the Giro from 5-7 p.m. (ET) on Saturday and Sunday.