Stage 7

The road

At the start

Malori in pink, four big names gone

Adriano Malori took the maglia rosa in Porto Sant'Elpidio on a twelve-second bonus and holds fifteen over Michał Gołaś and seventeen over Ryder Hesjedal. Yesterday's hills also emptied the race of names: Hushovd, Farrar, Lastras and Feillu all climbed off. Today finishes uphill for the first time, on the steep, twisting ramps to Rocca di Cambio, and a time triallist in pink has to climb better than he ever has.

How it was won

1. 1203 km to go

   Gone before the flag drops

   Rabottini, Selvaggi, Beppu and Hollenstein attack the instant the flag falls. A peloton grateful to have the day settled this early lets all four ride away.

2. 2100 km to go

   Seven forty-nine on the Galluccio

   Beppu takes the points on the Colle Galluccio ahead of Rabottini, Hollenstein and Selvaggi. The bunch crosses the same line 7:49 later, in no hurry at all on a cool day the surviving sprinters are grateful for.

3. 316 km to go

   Pirazzi comes across

   Stefano Pirazzi bridges to what is left of the break with sixteen kilometres to go and rides straight past them. Rabottini is thirty-three seconds up the road; the peloton is a minute back and closing.

4. 414 km to go

   Malori's day in pink ends

   Pirazzi catches Rabottini, Herrada goes after the pair of them, and behind, on the ramps to Rocca di Cambio, Adriano Malori loses contact with the bunch and the maglia rosa in the same moment.

5. 51 km to go

   Scarponi opens up at 700 metres

   Herrada is caught, the road turns viciously steep and twisting, and the defending champion attacks. Michele Scarponi goes with seven hundred metres left; only one rider gets on the wheel.

6. 6At the line

   Tiralongo comes around him

   Inside the last hundred metres Paolo Tiralongo eases past Scarponi to take the second win of his career on a wall of a finish. Fränk Schleck is third at three seconds — and fifth, five seconds down, comes Ryder Hesjedal, the first Canadian ever to wear the maglia rosa.

The result