The first stage of the Brixia Tour was split in half. The sprinters battled it out in the morning, while the afternoon saw a team time trial shake up the overall.
Danilo Napolitano (Lampre) won the first half stage in a mass sprint. He beat his Italian compatriots Mattia Gavazzi (Preti Mangimi) and Bernardo Riccio (Tinkoff Credit Systems).
Dutch outfit Skil-Shimano then won the team time trial by 14 seconds over NGC Medical-OTC. ProTour teams Milram and Quick Step landed in third and fourth, while Tinkoff finished 24 seconds down in fifth.
The team's win handed Skil Shimano the top six in the general classification standings. Two Japanese riders, Yusuke Hatanaka and Yukihiro Doi, are in the lead. In third place is breakaway specialist Albert Timmer.
In the sprint earlier in the day, Napoliatano celebrated his third season victory. Several breakaway attempts were nullified by the peloton, especially under the work of Lampre. Napolitano's team had control of the situation and set up the sprint to perfection.
