Former Giro D'Italia champion Steffano Garzelli produced a strong performance to emerge victorious in the 16th stage of this year's competition.
The 2000 champion made a superb final breakaway to finish 1 minute 1 second ahead of Frenchman Laurent Mangel in the 189km stage from Agordo through to Lienz in Austria.
It was the Aqua & Sapone rider's second win in a week after he also won Saturday's 14th stage in Bergamo.
Following a rest day on Monday and some rain in the morning, the stage got off to a very slow start and the riders seemed happy to make an easy pace.
However, Garzelli made his final move with approximately 30km of the final climb remaining to win the stage and he was pleased with his performance.
He said on cyclingnews.com: 'I just did not want to lose. I am very content with this one. I risked it a little bit because it was such a long way out.'
The win moved the 33-year-old up to 13th in the overall standings; however he is still 11 minutes 32 seconds behind leader Danilo Di Luca.
And Garzelli admits he is not sure if he will challenge for the Giro D'Italia in the next few years.
He added: 'I am outside of the classification battle so I was able to try my luck today.'
'In the next years I don't know if I will aim for the Giro overall or not. It was nice to win the stage the other day to Bergamo, and again today.'
With only five stages remaining Liquigas rider Di Luca's hold on the Giro D'Italia looks to be strengthening as he remained 1 minute 51 seconds ahead of Eddy Mazzoleni.
Luxembourg's Andy Schleck is 2 minutes 56 seconds behind in third, while Gilberto Simoni is 3 minutes 19 seconds behind in fourth.
On Wednesday the race moves on to the gruelling 142km 17th stage to Monte Zoncolan, which is arguably the hardest climb in cycling.
Leading final positions after stage 16: (Agordo - Lienz , 189 KM ):
1 Stefano Garzelli (Ita) Acqua & Sapone - Caffe Mokambo 5hrs 34min 07sec, 2 Laurent Mangel (Fra) AG2r Prevoyance at 1.01, 3 Ricardo Serrano Gonzalez (Spa) Tinkoff Credit System same time, 4 Jose Luis Rubiera Vigil (Spa) Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team same time, 5 Pietro Caucchioli (Ita) Credit Agricole same time, 6 Pablo Lastras Garcia (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne same time, 7 Salvatore Commesso (Ita) Tinkoff Credit System 2.29, 8 Giovanni Visconti (Ita) Quickstep - Innergetic same time, 9 Assan Bazayev (Kaz) Astana same time, 10 Lorenzo Bernucci (Ita) T-Mobile Team same time, 11 Julian Dean (NZl) Credit Agricole at 2.31, 12 Sven Krauss (Ger) Gerolsteiner same time, 13 Lloyd Mondory (Fra) AG2r Prevoyance same time, 14 Yoann Le Boulanger (Fra) Bouygues Telecom same time, 15 Eric Berthou (Fra) Caisse d'Epargne same time
Leading General classification after stage 16:
1 Danilo Di Luca (Ita) Liquigas at 73hrs 43min 12sec, 2 Eddy Mazzoleni (Ita) Astana at 1.51, 3 Andy Schleck (Lux) Team CSC at 2.56, 4 Gilberto Simoni (Ita) Saunier Duval - Prodir at 3.19, 5 Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre - Fondital at 3.23, 6 Riccardo Ricco (Ita) Saunier Duval - Prodir at 3.39, 7 David Arroyo Duran (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne at 6.05,8 Emanuele Sella (Ita) Ceramica Panaria - Navigare at 7.02, 9 Evgeni Petrov (Rus) Tinkoff Credit System at 7.29, 10 Marzio Bruseghin (Ita) Lampre - Fondital at 9.29, 11 Franco Pellizotti (Ita) Liquigas at 9.30, 12 Ivan Ramiro Parra Pinto (Col) Cofidis - Le Credit par Telephone at 10.17, 13 Stefano Garzelli (Ita) Acqua & Sapone - Caffe Mokambo at 11.32, 14 Paolo Savoldelli (Ita) Astana at 12.08, 15 Francisco Javier Vila Errandonea (Spa) Lampre - Fondital at 12.35
