Stage 5

The road

At the start

Liquigas hold the top three

The team time trial has put Liquigas-Doimo first, second and third: Vincenzo Nibali in pink, Ivan Basso at 13 seconds, Valerio Agnoli at 20, with Vinokourov at 33. Today is 162 kilometres to Novi Ligure through Coppi's country, past Tortona and Castellania where he was born, over a pass that carries his name. It reads like a sprinters' day, and the sprinters have not had many of those.

How it was won

1. 153 km to go

   Over the Passo Coppi

   The four leaders climb the Passo Coppi above Castellania, the village where Fausto Coppi was born, still more than three minutes clear. Lampre have been chasing for Petacchi since Tortona and have not made a dent.

2. 230 km to go

   Two-fifty with thirty to go

   The break crosses the finish line for the first time with 2:50 in hand. The sprinters' teams have thirty kilometres to find it and, on the evidence of the last hour, no obvious way of doing so.

3. 3At the line

   Pineau by a hundred metres

   HTC-Columbia and Sky come out of the last bend at full speed and run out of road. Jerome Pineau holds them off by about a hundred metres for Quick Step's second stage of the race, Fouchard second and Arashiro third.

The result