Alessandro Petacchi edged out an irate Mark Cavendish as he won the first mass sprint of this year's Giro d'Italia, although the latter has taken the general classification lead.
Petacchi (Lampre-ISD) beat HTC-Highroad's Cavendish in a frantic final stretch of the 244-kilometre stage from Alba to Parma with Manuel Belletti (Colnago - CSF Inox) third and Roberto Ferrari of Androni Giocattoli in fourth.
The Briton was furious as they crossed the finish line and gesticulated at the Italian who he felt had not held his line in the final 200 metres, although the race jury upheld the finishing order.
Cavendish said: ‘I'm happy to have the maglia rosa after a hard stage for the team. Petacchi is a good guy but in the last 200 metres he moved three times.
‘The judges usually relegate someone when they do that.’
Petacchi retorted: ‘I don't think I did anything wrong in the sprint. When you see someone coming up you go looking for him and I moved a bit, but I didn't do anything wrong. But I apologise if I did.’
Cavendish had started the stage tied on time with HTC-Highroad team-mate and overnight leader Marco Pinotti, but the time bonuses at the finish put Cavendish into the maglia rosa.
Irishman Philip Deignan, who was in 11th place after the opening stage, now lies in 13th position, just 22 seconds behind Cavendish.
