Paolo Tiralongo won the 19th stage of the Giro D'Italia this afternoon.
This 209km stage from Bergamo to Macugnaga was a day noted for its heavy rain.
Stefan Garzelli led the way for most of the stage before a crash with around 30kms to go saw Marco Pinotti (HTC), Craig Lewis (HTC), Carlos Ochoa (Androni), Luca Mazzanti (Farnese), Tiago Machado (Radioshack) and Frederik Veuchelen (Vacansoleil) apparently all going down. Pinotti and Lewis, who was taken to hospital with a broken leg, abandoned the race.
Garzelli got pulled back and Jerome Pineau, Lars Bak and Matteo Rabottini took control.
They were caught with 10kms to go by a group which contained race leader Alberto Contador who attacked with 1.5km to go.
John Gadret and Joaquin Rodriquez attacked as did Contador but it was Paolo Tiralongo who beat Contador to the line in a time of 5hr 28 mins and 17 seconds.
Stage 20 is from Verbania to Sestriere and is 242km long
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Michael Albasini has claimed HTC-Highroad's second stage of the Bayern Rundfahrt race in Germany on Friday, moving into the overall lead.
Following John Degenkolb's bunch sprint win on Thursday, 24 hours later the Swiss climber clinched the victory over Britain's Geraint Thomas and Australian Wesley Sulzberger on the 180.8 kilometer stage from Bad Gogging to Aichach.
"There was a big split about half way through the stage and forty riders got ahead, but there were a lot of guys in the break not working, so I was sure it was going to split again, and it did," Albasini said.
"I attacked with a group of around ten riders and we got a good gap, so we knew the win would come down to us."
"I tried to go again to get some more of an advantage over the rest, and when that didn't work, I had enough energy left to win the sprint and get the lead."
With a key time trial yet to race, Albasini is confident he will be able to defend his top spot overall.
"The last two stage races I've won after getting the lead - that was in the Tour of Britain last year and the Tour of Austria a few years back - and I'm determined to do the same again here."