The US-based Garmin-Transitions cycling team put itself in the pink at the 2008 Giro d'Italia with its performance at the team time trial, but that success wasn't repeated on Wednesday.
The Italian Liquigas-Doimo team beat the field by 13 seconds to elevate cyclist Vincenzo Nibali into the overall lead. He had started the day in 4th overall.
Previous race leader Alexandre Vinokourov dropped to 6th place overall after his Astana team came in tied for 5th at 38 seconds behind Liquigas. Australian Cadel Evans, who lost the pink leader's jersey after Stage 3, dropped further back after his BMC Racing team finished a dismal 12th place, 1:31 behind the winner.
With Garmin's David Millar sitting in 3rd place just 1 second out of the lead, CyclingNews reported that the Garmin team was motivated to do well enough to win the stage, put Millar in first place, and dedicate the accomplishment to teammate Christian Vande Velde, who crashed out of the Giro for the second year in a row on Monday. [Vande Velde had worn the leader's pink jersey in 2008 after the team — racing as Slipstream Chipotle — won the team time trial.]
They faced a big challenge, however, because they didn't have a full complement of cyclists with Vande Velde gone and strong teammembers like David Zabriskie not racing in Italy because of the upcoming Tour of California.
The strong finish by Liquigas also helped Ivan Basso, who is placed in 2nd overall, 13 seconds behind teammate Nibali.
Among the other top-finishing teams on Wednesday were 2nd place, Sky; 3rd place, HTC-Columbia; 4th place, Katusha; and 5th place tied between Cervelo and Katusha.
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