Stage 11

The road

At the start

262 kilometres to L'Aquila

Vinokourov still leads Evans by 1:12, Nibali by 1:33 and Basso by 1:51, and nobody has laid a hand on him since Montalcino. Today is the longest day of the race, 262 kilometres from Lucera to L'Aquila with three categorised climbs and rain again, finishing in a town an earthquake flattened fourteen months ago. Astana and BMC are riding thin squads, and a stage this long needs only one team to look away.

How it was won

1. 1248 km to go

   A huge break, and nobody chasing

   Rain, 262 kilometres and three categorised climbs, and after twenty kilometres a forty-strong break goes up the road with Carlos Sastre and Bradley Wiggins in it. Whether the favourites decided to rest or simply miscounted, nobody rides.

2. 2111 km to go

   Seventeen minutes

   Over Roccaraso the escape's lead peaks at seventeen minutes, and the general classification of this Giro is being rewritten by men who are not pedalling.

3. 350 km to go

   Still thirteen minutes at Capo di Valle

   The Svolte di Popoli was supposed to be where the race woke up. It crests with the gap at 12:54, and only now do Evans, Vinokourov, Garzelli, Nibali and Basso start swapping turns on the front.

4. 47 km to go

   Sastre drives, Cataldo goes

   Six and a half kilometres out Sastre lifts the pace to bank every second of his return to contention, and Dario Cataldo counters with a solo bid for the stage.

5. 5At the line

   Petrov wins, and Porte is in pink

   Evgeni Petrov comes past Cataldo to win in L'Aquila, a year after the earthquake, at the end of a 242-kilometre escape. Ten kilometres back the favourites are still riding, and when their group finally arrives the maglia rosa belongs to a Tasmanian neo-pro, Richie Porte.

The result