This hardly ever happens, but sometimes the breakaway does stay out in front until the finish line.
Two cyclists celebrated that rare good luck on Stage 6 of the Giro d'Italia on Friday, when Colombia Luis Felipe Laverde (Ceramica) won the stage and Italian Marco Pinotti (T-Mobile) took the leader's pink jersey.
It marks the first time in the 2007 that a member of the Liquigas team — primarily Danilo Di Luca — didn't don the pink jersey at the end of the day. Di Luca sits in 3rd place overall, 4-minutes-12 in back of Pinotti.
5-man break
Pinotti and Laverde were members of a 5-man break that got away about 30 miles into the 110-mile stage between Tivoli and Spoleto. The five had 7 minutes on the field at the summit of the first big climb, and Pinotti and Laverde attacked that small, but tired, group on the third and final climb of the day.
Along the way to the finish line, they worked out an agreement that Pinotti would lead Laverde but let him get the stage win; at the same time that effort ensured Pinotti the overall lead. Imagine, two cyclists working together. The other three cyclists finished ahead of the peloton.
For Pinotti's part, he jumped from 44th place to 1st, overcoming his 3-minute-11 deficit at the beginning of the day.
Overall
Di Luca and three other members of the Liquigas team still sit bunched up in 3rd-6th places. A favorite, Damiano Cunego, sits in 9th place, 5-minutes-6 behind and American David Zabriskie (Team CSC) is in 10th place, 5-minutes-15 behind the leader.
Discovery Channel's George Hincapie dropped to 49th place, 7-minutes-23 out of first.
Saturday's Stage 7 should be one for the sprinters, as the peloton rides 157 miles from Spoleto to Scarperia.
See full results and details at VeloNews and CyclingNews.
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