 Luis Felipe Laverde winning Stage 6 |
 Alessandro Petacchi winning Stage 7 |
 Paolo Bettini being beaten again, this time by a charging Kurt-Asle Arvesen |
 Heading into the hills on Stage 6 |
 T-Mobile leading the peloton on Stage 7 |
Stage 6
Friday’s stage saw a change of the Maglia Rosa. It was five man breakway before Marco Pinotti (T-Mobile) and Luis Felipe Laverde (Ceramica Panaria-Navigare) attacked on the slopes of the Forca di Cerro, with Laverde eventually taking the win.
Pinotti was still understandably happy to take the pink jersey however: “It is my first leader’s jersey to ever take,” he said. “For me it was a good gesture to let Laverde win the stage, I was secure to take the Maglia Rosa, so we both got something.”
Team Liquigas worked hard on the front of the main bunch to reel the breakaway in, but had to relinquish the pink jersey, Danilo Di Luca finishing some four minutes down on Pinotti.
Results
Stage 7
Alessandro Petacchi (Milram) took his second win of the Giro. A long 254km stage finishing on the Mugello race track in Scarperia saw the Milram riders working hard together to deliver Petacchi to the line.
There was no change to the general classification, with Pinotti still wearing the Maglia Rosa.
Stage 8
A breakaway of 22 riders including Paolo Bettini (Quickstep-Innergetic) and George Hincapie (Discovery Channel) among others stayed away from the peloton, despite the T-Mobile squad working hard to conserve Marco Pinotti’s grasp of the Maglia Rosa.
In the end Kurt-Asle Arvesen (CSC) took the win, ahead of a disappointed Bettini.
Talking after his win: ”I’m extremely happy to finally win a big one again. I’ve been second a few times too many now and today was my day. It was a tough finish after a tough day and I was well aware that I only had one shot or I’d run out of strength. I actually decided on going solo, when there was one kilometer left, but then Bettini was off at the exact same moment and I went along with him. I had brilliant legs today and just the right amount of luck to pull it off.”
