Stage 7

The road

At the start

A breakaway takes the pink jersey

Two hundred kilometres up the road bought Valerio Conti the maglia rosa, and the overnight top eight contains not one pre-race favourite: Giovanni Carboni second at 1:41, Nans Peters third, Fausto Masnada seventh after winning yesterday. The favourites have been handed a holiday from the pressure. Today's 185 kilometres to L'Aquila go over Le Svolte di Popoli with forty-six to run.

How it was won

1. 146 km to go

   Le Svolte di Popoli

   After a furious first half raced near 50kph, the cat-2 climb finally shreds the day's break down to five, the sprinters — Gaviria among them — long since gone.

2. 22 km to go

   Bilbao's perfect timing

   With 1.5km to go Pello Bilbao jumps clear of the lead group; after a hesitant glance the others send Cattaneo across, and though the Astana man looks to be tiring on the last drag, the chase is a fraction short.

3. 3At the line

   Bilbao holds on in L'Aquila

   Bilbao clings to five seconds at the line to beat Gallopin and Formolo — the sort of nerveless finish that would define his Giro.

The result