Explosive finish on Mount Etna stage at Giro d'Italia

You can expect eruptions from an active volcano such as Mount Etna, but it was Alberto Contador who supplied the fireworks on Stage 9 of the Giro d' Italia on Sunday.

The Spaniard on Team Saxo Bank attacked the group of contenders 4 miles from the summit finish on Mount Etna. He won the stage and put himself solidly in front of the overall leaders by 59 seconds.

Contador, who previously won the Giro in 2008, looks like the man to beat in this year's edition of the race with 12 stages to go. Five of those are mountain-top finishes, and the peloton looks like putty in his hands when it comes to the big climbs.

Breakaway

The peloton takes a rest day on Monday to lick its wounds and figure out how to keep Contador from riding away with this bike race.

The 169km (104-mile) stage on the island of Sicily had just two climbs — both on different approaches to the summit of Mount Etna.

The peloton was content to let a 9-man breakaway develop, comprising  Mathias Frank (BMC), Pablo Lastras (Movistar), Giovanni Visconti (Farnese Vini), Jan Bakelandts (Omega), Yaroslav Popovych (RadioShack), Mickael Cherel (AG2R), Alessandro Vanotti (Liquigas), Filippo Savini (Colnago) and Joan Horrach (Katusha).

Attacks

On the final climb, Frank, Lastras, Visconti, and Bakelandts dropped the others. Eventually, Bakelandts had the front position all to himself with 9km left, but the steepest portions of the climb ahead of him.

The first cyclist in the peloton to make an attack was Jose Rujano (Androni Giocattoli), but he couldn't bridge to Bakelandts who held his 1-minute lead.

Then Contador rocketed out of the group of contenders on the steepest section where no one else could respond. He caught up and passed Rujano, who did his best to try and hang onto Contador's rear wheel for the rest of the race.

Huge gains

The pair passed Bakelandts and continued unchallenged to the finish line. Near the finish, Contador accelerated one more time to drop Rujano and ensure a solo finish.

In the battle for third-place finish and an 8-second time bonus, Stefano Garzelli narrowly beat Vincenzo Nibali in a sprint for the line.

In just two stages, Contador had lifted himself from 9th place to 1st place overall with a 59 second gap over his nearest challenger, Kanstantsin Sivtsov.

There are nearly two weeks of racing left, and Contador will have to defend the maglia rosa for a long time. In the past two days, he certainly looked up to the task.