Stage 11

The road

At the start

Rodríguez in pink, 252 kilometres to ride

Joaquim Rodríguez took Assisi and the maglia rosa, and leads Ryder Hesjedal by seventeen seconds with Tiralongo at thirty-two. Filippo Pozzato, who put himself and half the sprint on the tarmac at Frosinone, does not start. Today is the longest stage of the race: two hundred and fifty-two kilometres from Assisi to Montecatini Terme, two modest climbs, and a finish full of corners.

How it was won

1. 195 km to go

   Poggio alla Croce, and nobody cares

   Kaisen takes the points at the top of the Poggio alla Croce and the bunch comes over two minutes later, quite content. Within a few kilometres they have let the gap grow again to three.

2. 230 km to go

   Boaro tries the long way

   Thirty kilometres from Montecatini, with the peloton on their necks, Manuele Boaro attacks and only Sáez follows. The Saxo Bank man drops him too, takes half a minute, and holds a minute over the bunch — and is caught nine seconds after crossing the line for the first time.

3. 311 km to go

   The Vico cracks the tail

   The last climb of the day cracks the tail of the bunch. Visconti leads four men over the top, Kreuziger and Scarponi come across on the descent, and Sky pull the whole thing back together with six kilometres left and Cavendish sitting comfortably.

4. 4At the line

   Modolo slides, Ferrari wins

   On the last of the many corners inside the final kilometre Sacha Modolo loses the front wheel into the barriers and every lead-out plan in the race goes with him. Vaitkus is left in front; Roberto Ferrari — the man who caused the Horsens pile-up — comes past him and celebrates wildly.

The result