Androni's Roberto Ferrari won the Giro D'Italia Eleventh Stage this afternoon.
The riders set out from Assisi in temperatures of 19oc, at 11.44am on the longest stage of the race at 255kms to Montecatini Terme.
Six riders in Olivier Kaisen (Lotto Belisol), Adrian Saez (Euskaltel), Simone Ponzi (Astana), Stefan Denifl (Vacansoleil-DCM), Manuele Boaro (Saxo Bank) and Mickaël Delage (FDJ-BigMat) were the first to attack.
Ponzi dropped back into the peloton which was down a man when Rabobank's Tom Leezer abandoned.
Team Sky's Jeremy Hunt was on the front of the peloton containing race leader Joaquin Rodriquez which was 2.46 back with 100kms to go.
Kaisen led up the Poggio alla Croce, the first climb of the day as the riders kept up a steady pace adding to the amount of time they would spend in the saddle today.
At Vinci in the Cianti region, the gap was 27 seconds with 41kms to go.
With today being a stage for the sprinters, the teams started to move their big guns up and with 30kms to go, the time of the five at the front was over.
Manuele Boaro was determined however, to stay out in front for as long as possible and he went away and had a gap of 49 seconds with 23kms left.
Thoughts were now turning to the finish in Montecatini Terme which had a climb and three sharp turns inside the final kilometre. Liquigas were on the front with World Champion Mark Cavendish, who has a house not too far from the finish line, close behind.
There was one crash in front of big crowds with 14.7kms to go with Rasmussen going down. The final lap started with Boaro still on the front but he was caught with 13.8kms left.
Visconti lead a four man break up the fourth category climb at Vico. Roman Kreuziger and Michele Scarpone bridged the gap to them before everyone was back together with 7.6kms to go.
Geraint Thomas and Ian Stannard took to the front of a group of about thirty riders which also included a number of Saxo Bank and Net App riders.
Allesandro Ballan attacked with 1.6kms left then Ventoso took over in the final kilometre. Mark Cavendish was fourth back as there was a crash on the final bend including Daryl Impey but Cavendish could not get near Roberto Ferrari who won in a time of 6.49.05 ahead of Chicci and Vaitkus.
Mark Cavendish finished fourth and now takes over the points jersey.
Joaquin Rodriquez keeps his leaders jersey.
