This time, it was revenge for Stefano Garzelli.

A year after his days in the Giro d’Italia were numbered because of a positive doping test, Garzelli returned to the top of the mountain in Saturday’s 146km stage to Terminillo.

The 2000 champion is back in the pink jersey after an emotional victory ahead of Saeco’s Gilberto Simoni in the Giro’s first mountain stage, which saw the chances for many pre-race favorites fade to black.

Marco Pantani was not having one of his better days.

Photo: Graham Watson

“It was a great stage for me and a very special day,” said Garzelli after racking up his second stage win in a week. “Exactly one year ago I won the stage to Limone Piemonte, but then three hours later the world fell in on me when I was told I'd failed a drugs test.”

Garzelli tested positive for traces of probenicid, a banned diuretic that can be used as a masking agent. A second test later confirmed the positive, and he was kicked out of the Giro to later serve a nine-month racing ban.

“Now, one year later it’s great to have won again and taken the pink jersey,” he told Reuters. “When I pulled the pink jersey on again it was a very intense and special moment. The Giro will be hard because we’ve only raced one week and there’s still two more weeks to go.”

What a difference a 16km climb can make. As expected, the Terminillo climb ended sprinter Alessandro Petacchi’s weeklong run in the pink jersey. What was surprising was how many of the favorites couldn’t hold the pace on the long, grinding climb.

Italian Francesco Casagrande (Lampre) lost more than two minutes while Marco Pantani (Mercatone Uno), the double Giro and Tour de France winner in 1998, also failed to keep pace, losing almost four minutes.

“My whole team suffered today,” said Pantani, who has struggled to rediscover his form of old. “Some riders went very strong today, but I wasn’t very good. It was a hard stage and I’m very tired.”

Suffering worse losses was Fassa Bortolo. It started the day in the pink jersey, but the climb was a death sentence for the podium hopes of 2002 Vuelta a Espana champion Aitor Gonzalez and teammate Dario Frigo, who both lost more than five minutes.

“I couldn’t breathe very well because of a pain in my shoulder, but I didn’t think I’d ride so badly,” Gonzalez said. “I don’t know if I have a chance for the overall standings now, perhaps I'll just try and win the time trials.”

About halfway up the climb, Caldirola-Sidermec’s Eddy Mazzoleni was setting a strong tempo that weeded the field down to nine riders, including Andrea Noe and Franco Pellizzoti (Alessio), Pavel Tonkov (CCC-Polsat), Raimondas Rumsas (Lampre), Yaroslav Popovych (Landbouwkrediet), Simoni, and Marius Sabaliauskas (Saeco) and teammate Garzelli.

With about 6km to go, Simoni accelerated to fracture the lead group. Only Garzelli, Noe and Tonkov were strong enough to follow. Further accelerations eliminated Noe and Tonkov, though Noe battled hard to regain contact to finish third in the stage.

In a telling moment, Simoni looked hard into Garzelli’s eyes to size up his rival. Simoni looked fresher on the climb, but Garzelli – who started the day in second place – stayed on his wheel and zipped ahead with 200 meters to go take the win.

“Simoni was very strong today and I had to dig deep to stay with him. He did most of the work, but I wasn’t going to gift him the stage. If he could have left me behind, I'm sure he would have,” Garzelli said. “Every second is vital now, and I expect to be the focus of much attention in the coming days.”

Simoni’s strength eliminated several dangerous rivals. With a Giro course profile riddled with climbs, including four more summit finishes, he knows it’s going to be a long fight.

“When I was with Garzelli, all I could think about was closing the time gap, not about the stage victory,” Simoni said. “Sure, I would love to have won it, but everything’s fine. It was a great climb.”

Garzelli now holds a 31-second lead over 2001 Giro winner Simoni, with Noe sitting third at 44 seconds back.

The Giro heads back to level ground for the 214km eighth stage. The stage features a Category 2 climb in the opening 22km, otherwise it’s a fairly flat run into Arezzo.

To see how the stage unfolded today just click here to bring up our Live Update window.