With a little help from his QuickStep team, Giovanni Visconti, left, held onto the pink leader's jersey for another day at the 2008 Giro d'Italia on Wednesday in spite of being dropped twice and crashing once.
But it was Alessandro Bertolini who stole the show, winning the 123-mile mountainous Stage 11 from Urbania to Cesena in a sprint he won after a one of his breakaway companions crashed in the final kilometer.
It marked the first Giro d'Italia win ever for the 36-year-old on the team Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni. Bertolini and another rider attaked earlier in the race and were caught by three other cyclists who all battled for a stage win.
Peloton
The peloton saw lots of in-fighting too, as defending champion Danilo DiLuca tried unsuccessfully to drop his challengers, such as last year's Tour de France winner Alberto Contador of Astana.
At the end of the day, Visconti still had a good lead over his nearest challenger as his rivals wait for him to crack.
They all moved up one spot as Matthias Russ from Gerolsteiner dropped from 2nd to 42nd after a particularly bad day, but none gained any time on Visconti. BBC reports the Italian received X-rays for his left elbow and right wrist after the race.
The Top 20 are:
1. Giovanni Visconti (ITA), Quick Step
2. Gabriele Bosisio (ITA), Team L.P.R., at 5:50 behind
3. Alberto Contador (ESP), Astana, 6:59
4. Marzio Bruseghin (ITA), Lampre, 7:52
5. Andreas Kloden (GER), Astana, 7:54
6. Vincenzo Nibali (ITA), Liquigas, 8:04
7. Paolo Savoldelli (ITA), Team L.P.R., 8:09
8. Riccardo Ricco' (ITA), Saunier Duval, 8:32
9. Danilo Di Luca (ITA), Team L.P.R., 8:33
10. Erik Larsson Gustav (SWE), CSC, ditto
11. Denis Menchov (RUS), Rabobank, 8:57
12. Gilberto Simoni (ITA), Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni, 9:10
13. Levi Leipheimer (USA), Astana, ditto
14. Franco Pellizotti (ITA), Liquigas, 9:15
15. Broeck Jurgen Van Den (BEL), Silence-Lotto, 9:43
16. Christian Vandevelde (USA), Slipstream-Chipotle, 9:46
17. Evgeni Petrov (RUS), Tinkoff, 9:48
18. Marco Pinotti (ITA), Team High Road, 9:56
19. Rafael Cardenas Felix (COL), Barloworld, 10:14
20. Leonardo Piepoli (ITA), Saunier Duval, 10:16
More race results at VeloNews and CyclingNews.
Thursday's Stage 13 is a flat 106 miles from Forli to Carpi.
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