Alessandro Bertolini (Androni Giocattoli) won stage 3 of the Giro del Trentino between Fiera di Primiero and Trento after escaping on the final climb. Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-Farnese Vini) led the peloton home 14 seconds later, beating Roberto Ferrari (De Rosa-Stac Plastic) in the sprint for second place.
The 164km stage began at the foot of the long climb to the Passo Rolle, without sixth placed Thomas Frei of BMC Racing who was withdrawn after his positive a-sample test for EPO. 10km into the climb, just before the race passed through yesterday’s stage finish town of San Martino di Castrozza, a group formed and quickly pulled out a lead of around 2 minutes.
The breakaway group consisted of: Valerio Agnoli (Liquigas-Doimo), Marco Marzano (Lampre-Farnese Vini), Stefano Garzelli (Acqua & Sapone), Carlos Ochoa (Androni Giocattoli), Maxim Belkov (ISD-Neri), Simone Stortoni (Colnago-CSF Inox), Riccardo Chiarini (De Rosa-Stac Plastic), Pasquale Muto (Miche), Fortunato Baliani (Miche) and Emanuele Sella (Carmiooro-NGC). The presence of Muto though, currently placed 22nd overall at 1’37” behind, meant that the group was never going to be allowed to get too far ahead.
The leading group’s lead peaked at 2’45” at the intermediate sprint after 95.6km, before the peloton began to close the gap. As the lead got lower Belkov decided to try to escape alone but he was reeled in on the final short climb of the day to Vigolo Vattaro. On the descent toward Trento with just under 25km to go Bertolini took his chance and escaped along with Egor Silin (Katusha) and Johann Tschopp (Bbox-Bouyges Telecom).
Bertolini soon left the other two behind and, with the peloton hesitating to allow Petacchi and a number of other sprinters to come back after the climb, built a gap of 40 seconds. With just 7km remaining the peloton was finally complete again, but Bertolini still was still 30 seconds clear. The bunch managed to reduce the gap but was unable to catch the lone Androni Giocattoli rider and he took his first win for almost two years.
With race leader Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) finishing in the peloton, the overall classification is unchanged with just tomorrow’s tough 174km stage to the Alpe di Pampeago remaining.
Result stage 3
1. Alessandro Bertolini (Ita) Androni Giocattoli-Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni
2. Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) Lampre-Farnese Vin @ 14s
3. Roberto Ferrari (Ita) De Rosa-Stac Plastic
Standings after stage 3
1. Alexandre Vinokourov (KAZ) Astana 9h.05m.06s
2. Riccardo Ricco (ITA) Ceramica Flaminia @ 26s
3. Michele Scarponi (ITA) Androni Giocattoli-Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni @ 29s
4. Ivan Basso (ITA) Liquigas-Doimo @ 37s
5. Jose Rodolfo Serpa (COL) Androni Giocattoli-Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni @ 38s