Alessandro Petacchi took advantage of a crash in the final kilometre before launching an early sprint for the line to claim his 23rd career stage victory in the Giro d'Italia on Thursday.
The Milram rider attacked 400m out and held off Ceramica Panaria-Navigare's Maximiliano Richeze to win an 18th Stage suited to speed merchants, with Team CSC's Matti Breschel coming in third.
But a crash 800m from the finish affecting reigning World road race champion Paolo Bettini put pay to the nailbiting finish which had looked on the cards.
Liquigas rider Danilo De Luca retained the pink jersey after the flat 203km stage from Udine to Riese, which contrasted starkly to Wednesday's punishing finish up Monte Zoncalan.
The first break of significance came 170km out, a group of seven - Franck Renier, Mikhail Ignatiev, Maxim Gourov, Addy Engels, Vila Errandonea, Horrillo Munoz and Eric Berthou - putting up to two-and-a-half minutes between themselves and the peleton.
But the long straight roads made it difficult for the leaders to establish a more comfortable gap and Gourov attacked 35km out, with Renier, Engel and Berthou all going with him.
Team Milram kept pace near the front of the chasing pack, looking to give Petacchi a fighting chance of claiming his fourth stage win of the tour, and cut the quartet's lead to just over a minute with 33km to go.
Vila, Horrillo and Ignatiev were swallowed up with 27km remaining and the peleton quickly set about reeling in the leading four riders, whose lead was cut to 36 seconds 18km from the line.
The chasing pack caught the quartet 7km out, but the real drama was yet to come as Bettini's hopes were crushed when Alexandre Usov and Lloyd Mondory went careering into the barriers, forcing the Italian wide and killing off his hopes of victory.
The top three positions in the overall table remain unchanged though, with De Luca ahead of Andy Schleck in second and Gilberto Simoni in third.
