You could almost hear the “delete” buttons being tapped in the Giro d’Italia pressroom in Cagliari on the Island of Sardinia on Monday.

All of those stories about how Milram’s Alessandro Petacchi was a washed-up version of yesterday’s news were sent to the trash can as the man known as Ale-Jet scored his 20th Giro stage win at the end of a largely flat, 181-kilometer stage from Barumini to Cagliari.

It was, coincidentally, in the third stage of last year's Giro that Petacchi suffered a freak accident, landing directly on his knee and fracturing his patella. After missing the Tour de France and struggling to find his form at the Vuelta a España, the once-feared sprint king broke another bone – this time in his hand – after he punched an opponent’s team bus in a moment of anger.

It’s not been an easy time for Petacchi to say the least, but all of that frustration was washed away in a final 300-meter charge to the line Cagliari on Monday. Petacchi, who found himself in the unusual position of coming into the final meters of a stage without his train of lead-out men, took a gamble and launched a long sprint, fending off Gerolsteiner’s Robert Förster and Maximiliano Richeze (Panaria) in the process.

Di Luca says he's cool with it.

Photo: Graham Watson

Sunday’s winner, Robbie McEwen (Predictor Lotto), appeared to be boxed in, having picked the wrong line through the day’s final turn. By beating McEwen, Petacchi moved into the lead in the points standings. But it was the stage win that Petacchi found most rewarding.

“To win today was a huge relief,” he said, sobbing with joy as he hunched over his bars after the finish. “I've had a lot of doubts about myself since my crash. I've won races but to win at the Giro is something else. It was a big release of emotions. Those tears you saw where tears of joy. ... This is one of the most beautiful wins of my career. It erased a lot of doubts. The team was always strong, what was missing was me.”

Meanwhile, the Liquigas team held on to the maglia rosa, but team leader Danilo Di Luca handed the jersey back to his lieutenant Enrico Gasparatto. The hand-off, as was the case with Sunday’s switch, was based on the relative finishing positions of the two, since they are virtually tied in overall time. In Saturday’s opening team time trial, Gasparatto – much to the chagrin of his team leader – slipped across the line first, just ahead of Di Luca.

On Sunday, Gasparatto finished 43rd, behind Di Luca’s 12th-place finish and lost the jersey to his team captain. On Monday, he contested the sprint, finishing eighth, out of contention for the stage win, but well ahead of Di Luca’s 82nd place.

While much has been made of Di Luca’s show of anger on Saturday, he insisted on Monday that he’s more than happy to see Gasparatto in the maglia rosa.

“We are a team,” said Di Luca, “It makes no difference which one of us wears the jersey at this point in the Giro. My hope is to wear it into Milan.”

The usual suspects
The day began as first week grand tour stages often do, with a flurry of early attacks and the formation of a break that poses little danger to the overall standings or risks causing the sprinters’ teams to miss a chance at putting their best into the mix at the end of a relatively flat stage.

The day's escape formed early

Photo: Graham Watson

By the fourth kilometer, Mikhaïl Ignatiev (Tinkoff) and Alexandre Pichot (Bouygues Telecom) managed to get a little gap over a peloton doing the usual calculus. Within a couple of kilometers, Ignatiev was joined by teammate Elio Aggiano, as well as Cofidis’s Mickael Buffaz and Quick Step’s Giovanni Visconti.

The five were off and soon built a solid three-minute lead as they crested the day’s biggest obstacle, a long, unrated, uphill drag that peaked out 15km from the start. Beyond that, the day’s route was largely composed of flat to rolling terrain all the way to the finish in Cagliari.

Indeed, the five men up front worked well together, boosting their lead to some 7:30 by the 60km mark, before the peloton slowly began to pull the escapees back.

But Ignatiev had other ideas. The Russian Tinkoff rider – the world U23 time trial champion in 2005 – is part of a continental team with high hopes. Not only did the squad put two riders in Monday’s break, it threw Pavel Brutt into Sunday’s escape and managed to put that Russian into the climber’s jersey for the effort.

By the time the peloton nudged the group’s advantage down to five minutes, the leaders hit another unrated climb at Castladas. Insignificant on the stage profile, the rise – at the 70km to go mark - was enough to give Ignatiev a chance to step up the pace, eventually breaking the lead group down to just two, the Russian and Quick Step’s Visconti.

Within 10 kilometers, the three dropped riders were back in the peloton and, at least momentarily, the chase eased for a bit. Ahead, the two men in the lead had actually notched up their advantage by about 45 seconds.

The chase got serious with 50km to go.

Photo: Graham Watson

With 45km to go, their lead hovered at 5:15. There was a bit of nervousness in the peloton, as more and more teams put riders into the chase. Within 5km, the lead was still around 5:00… and 4:27 with 35km to go. The things got serious.

Within five kilometers, the increasingly nervous peloton knocked a full minute off of the escapees advantage; then took it down to 3:08 at 25km; 2:44 at 20. The chase was on, but the gap was still quite dangerous.

They almost made it.

Photo: Graham Watson

Ignatiev still harbored dreams of beating the peloton into Cagliari.

"We were working together well in the 'fuga,'” said Ignatiev. “I still believed it might be possible with 10km to go. The deal was the stage win for the Quick Step rider and the maglia rosa for me, but Liquigas is a super-strong team and the peloton was organized to try to bring it to a sprint. We are very motivated as a team. Yesterday, Brutt attacked and today I went in the move. We will try every day because we want to make our presence felt in this Giro.”

Put behind, Petacchi threw most of his Milram train into the mix. McEwen, too, had riders putting in an effort, and the CSC team of Argentinean ace JJ Haedo also lent a hand. The inevitable catch occurred just 2.5 kilometers remaining.

The charge
Just as Visconti was pulled back into the peloton, his Quick Step team launched a quick counter-attack by sending teammate Matteo Tosatto on a hard charge off the front. The sprinters, however, were having none of that.

Milram threw everything it had into the mix and the team drove the peloton hard going into the final kilometer. Tosatto was quickly swept up, but the effort left Petacchi in an unusually vulnerable position. His was the sole Milram jersey left at the front of the field with 700 meters yet to go. Credit Agricole’s Nicolas Roche took a risky flyer off the front.

Just as the chase picked up, his teammate Thor Hushovd hit the deck, causing a split in the field.

“'Someone was pushing me toward the fences and then someone else hit me, causing me to fall,” said Hushovd. “It's too bad something like this happens because I haven't crashed in awhile. I felt stronger today and I was closer to being at the front."

Roche was caught and Petacchi soon launched a long sprint of his own. It was a classic 300-meter drag race to the line, with Petacchi easily beating Gerosteiner’s Robert Förster and Maximiliano Richeze of Panaria.

McEwen had picked a bad line and gave up his sprint well before the finish. For Petacchi it was a golden moment after a difficult year.

“Only I know how much I suffered to get back into shape," said Petacchi after his victory. "I had to start from scratch after my injury. I had said that a victory in this year's race would mean as much to me as my first win in Lecce in 2003. I would like to dedicate it to my wife Anna Chiara and to two of her friends."

The road ahead - After three days on Sardinia, the peloton gets an earlier than usual rest day, with riders catching chartered flights to the mainland to contest Wednesday's 153km stage from Salerno to a tough mountain-top finish at Monteevegine di Mercogliano. While riders will be flying to the mainland, the rest of the Giro, reporters and support staff boarded a fleet of chartered ferries on Tuesday evening.
VeloNews European correspondent Andrew Hood contributed to this report

Stage Results
1. Alessandro Petacchi (I), Milram, 181 km in 4:22:57 (41.072kph)
2. Robert Forster (G), Gerolsteiner
3. Maximilian Ariel Maximilian (ARG), Ceramica Panaria
4. Robbie Mc Ewen (Aus), Predictor-Lotto
5. Danilo Napolitano (I), Lampre
6. Aliaksandr Usau (Blr), Ag2r Prevoyance
7. Lloyd Mondory (F), Ag2r Prevoyance
8. Enrico Gasparotto (I), Liquigas
9. Rojas Gil Jose Joaquin (Sp), Caisse d'Epargne
10. Volodymyr Bileka (Ukr), Discovery Channel, all same time

Overall
1. Enrico Gasparotto (I), Liquigas, 10:03:48
2. Danilo Di Luca (I), Liquigas, 0:00
3. Andrea Noe' (I), Liquigas, 0:00
4. Franco Pellizotti (I), Liquigas, 0:00
5. Vincenzo Nibali (I), Liquigas, 0:00
6. Charles Wegelius (GB), Liquigas, 0:00
7. Paolo Savoldelli (I), Astana, 0:13
8. Eddy Mazzoleni (I), Astana, 0:13
9. Andrey Mizourov (Kaz), Astana, 0:13
10. Dmitriy Muravyev (Kaz), Astana, 0:13