Italian sprint specialist Alessandro Petacchi claimed victory on Stage 11 of the Giro D'Italia after a breakneck burst for the line in the rain on Wednesday.
The Team Milram rider survived a crash at the finish to come home in five hours, 46 minutes and 59 seconds and complete the 198km stage ahead of Gabriele Balducci of Team Acqua & Sapone-Caffe Mokambo in second and Predictor-Lotto's Robbie McEwen in third.
Liquigas' Andrea Noe retained the race leader's pink jersey after being involved in the sprint finish in Pinerolo, but was one of about 20 riders caught up in the pile-up caused by the slippery conditions.
Petacchi launched his attack 200 metres out after the peloton had reeled in breakaway leader Mickael Buffaz and even though McEwen overtook him the home favourite responded to take the race on the line.
It looked at one point like unfancied Frenchman Buffaz would record a surprise victory after he broke from the group just 74km in and dominated from the front for much of the race.
Despite struggling with 90km remaining - he wanted to pull out only for the team's sporting director to persuade him to continue, the Confidis rider recovered to establish a nine minute lead with 65km to go.
But he tired in the closing stages and was caught by the sprinters 11km from home, allowing Petacchi, having successfully negotiated the U-turn 3.8km from home, to come through and record his third stage win of the tour.
Euskaltel's Aitor Gonzalez came off worst in the crash and left the scene in an ambulance, which must raise doubts about his continued participation in the tour.
Noe leads the overall standings by one minute and eight seconds from Marzio Bruseghin of Lampre-Fondital and one minute and 15secs from Caisse d'Epargne's David Arroyo.
Thursday's mountain stage runs for 163km from Scalenghe to Briancon in France.
Leading positions in stage 11 Serravalle Scrivia - Pinerolo 198 km:
1 Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) Team Milram 5 hrs 46 mins 59secs 2 Gabriele Balducci (Ita) Acqua & Sapone - Caffe Mokambo 3 Robbie McEwen (Aus) Predictor - Lotto 4 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Credit Agricole 5 Danilo Napolitano (Ita) Lampre - Fondital 6 Angelo Furlan (Ita) Credit Agricole 7 Koldo Fernandez (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi, 8 Alexandre Usov (Blr) AG2r Prevoyance, 9 Robert Forster (Ger) Gerolsteiner, 10 Enrico Gasparotto (Ita) Liquigas, 11 Pedro Horrillo Munoz (Spa) Rabobank, 12 Maximiliano Richeze (Arg) Ceramica Panaria - Navigare, 13 Nikolai Trusov (Rus) Tinkoff Credit System, 14 Paolo Bettini (Ita) Quickstep - Innergetic, 15 Brett Lancaster (Aus) Team Milram, 16 Benoit Joachim (Lux) Astana, 17 Alexandre Pichot (Fra) Bouygues Telecom, 18 Aitor Hernandez Gutierrez (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi, 19 Paolo Savoldelli (Ita) Astana, 20 Herve Duclos-Lassalle (Fra) Cofidis - Le Credit par Telephone all same time
Overall positions after stage 11:
1 Andrea Noe' (Ita) Liquigas 51.53.08, 2 Marzio Bruseghin (Ita) Lampre – Fondital 1.08 3 David Arroyo Duran (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 1.15, 4 Francisco Javier Vila Errandonea (Spa) Lampre - Fondital 1.38, 5 Evgeni Petrov (Rus) Tinkoff Credit System 1.48, 6 Emanuele Sella (Ita) Ceramica Panaria - Navigare 2.04, 7 Serguei Yakovlev (Kaz) Astana 2.06, 8 Danilo Di Luca (Ita) Liquigas 2.58, 9 Marco Pinotti (Ita) T-Mobile Team 3.11, 10 Jose Luis Rubiera Vigil (Spa) Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team 3.22, 11 Franco Pellizotti (Ita) Liquigas 4.03, 12 Andy Schleck (Lux) Team CSC 4.04,13 Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre - Fondital 4.29, 14 Leonardo Piepoli (Ita) Saunier Duval - Prodir 4.32,15 Paolo Savoldelli (Ita) Astana 4.40, 16 Riccardo Ricco (Ita) Saunier Duval - Prodir 5.06, 17 Mario Aerts (Bel) Predictor - Lotto 5.20, 18 Gilberto Simoni (Ita) Saunier Duval - Prodir 5.24, 19 Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr) Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team 5.27, 20 Dario David Cioni (Ita) Predictor - Lotto 5.44
