Bettini Wins Photo-Finish in Il giro

Yes, Paolo Bettini could not have missed the chance to maybe his only stage win in the current Tour of Italy. Having dropped out contenders like Robbie McEwen, Alessandro Petacchi or Thomas Vaitkus, Bettini had to cheer up the Italian crowd in Brescia.

If you’re talking about sprints, you just know Bettini will be there. And he was there all along, even if he did not manage to win it for the past four times, being beaten either by McEwen, or by Vaitkus. Well, now that the two were out of the picture – McEwen and Vaitkus both retired from Il Giro due to stomach aches – Bettini finally raised his arms to claim the stage victory.

And he did it the same way he lost his previous sprint. At a photo-finish. He passed the finish line only millimeters in front of his main opponent, Olaf Pollack. “This time things finally went right. It's a relief to win a stage after all my earlier placings and after my nasty crash in the Tirreno-Adriatico race in early March. Things just didn't seem to be going my way. I tried to win bunch sprints, I tried to go in breakaways but I didn't win. I was getting a bit desperate but now I've finally done it”, said Bettini, who had previously managed 3 podiums, but no win.

In the overall standings, Spain’s Ivan Basso seems to have secured the Il Giro title, even if there are some pretty Dolomite mountain stages ahead of him. He said that he expects cyclists to attack him, and that he will have a 5-day fight ahead of him. His current advantage over fellow Spanish J.E. Gutierrez is 3 minutes and 27 seconds. But here is the overall top 5 positions in Il Giro, less than a week before its end.

1. Ivan Basso (Ita/Team CSC) 59:44:07"
2. Jose Enrique Gutierrez (Spa/Phonak) +3:27"
3. Paolo Savoldelli (Ita/Discovery Channel) +5:30"
4. Wladimir Belli (Ita/Selle Italia) +7:35"
5. Gilberto Simoni (Ita/Saunier Duval) +8:00"