Farrar fantastic in Bitonto

If there were any doubts about who the on-form sprinter is at this year's Giro d'Italia, Garmin-Transitions' Tyler Farrar went a long way to answering any questions with a sensational long sprint in Bitonto that netted the American his second stage win and consolidated his lead in the points classification.

With Julian Dean the perfect decoy, Farrar totally outclassed his rival sprinters with a turn of speed that left the likes of Liquigas-Doimo's Fabio Sabatini, Katusha veteran Robbie McEwen and Milram's Robert Förster in his wake, that particular trio finishing second, fourth and fifth respectively.

Dean, who flew into the final left hand bend and opened up the field in the final metres, played the consummate teammate and took third for his efforts, the experienced New Zealander faring better than countryman Greg Henderson, who again missed out after unfortunately crashing in Giovinazzo with about 13km remaining - the effort of getting back onto the peloton's tail proving too taxing in the finale.

"I have the strongest team in the world for leading me out, it makes it easier for winning. I'm confident in my guys," said Farrar after his second stage win. "The last kilometre was very dangerous with curves and the road getting narrower. I had a good position for going out of the wheels at the last moment.

"Such a slight uphill finish was perfect for me; it's not me but Julian Dean who did something extraordinary," Farrar said. "I was going to let him win but I saw Sabatini who was coming behind me and I had to keep the win in the team."

Team Sky's sprinting duties were therefore left to Chris Sutton, the Australian getting into a good position heading into the final corner but fading late in the sprint to finish outside the top 10, with teammate and countryman Mathew Hayman taking ninth.

Again the likes of Ivan Basso, race leader Alexandre Vinokourov and his closest rival in this year's Giro, Cadel Evans, made their presence felt in the final five kilometres. 'Vino' had spoken of the need to be amongst the leading group before today's stage, with his appearance at yesterday's finale in Cava de' Tirreni somewhat of a surprise and a talking point at the start in Avellino.

Astana's captain believes he needs bonus seconds ahead of a tough final week of racing, which the team's directeur sportif, Giuseppe Martinelli, believes will be very difficult for his experienced leader on the road. He made another appearance on the podium this afternoon, presented with the maglia rosa for the fourth consecutive day.

"This has been the first real quiet day. I had to pay attention to avoid the crashes," said the overall leader after the stage. "That gives me one more day in pink. Tomorrow will be very different. It's like a classic. People say the terrain gives me the opportunity to attack but I think it's more up to the other riders to attack me."

And while Vinokourov mixed it up amongst the sprinters in the last kilometre yesterday, he left today's fast finish to the experts, the run in to Bitonto suiting HTC-Columbia and Garmin-Transitions, the former coming away empty handed after leaving finishing duties to André Greipel while the latter cleaned up with first and third. Of all the stages in this year's Giro this arguably best suited the big German but again he was nowhere to be seen when it counted.

Fun, fun, fun in the sun

Another heavy mileage day awaited riders in Avellino, with a 230km journey from Italy's west to its east on the menu. As expected, the southern shores of the country provided the peloton with sunnier climes and respite from the wet and wild weather that has battered them almost continuously throughout this Giro.

Today's twitchy trio consisted of Hubert Dupont (Ag2R-La Mondiale), Dario Cataldo (Quick Step) and Charly Wegelius (Omega Pharma-Lotto), the three riders getting away after eight kilometres with a long day ahead of them.

Dupont, Wegelius and Cataldo gained themselves a maximum advantage of almost seven minutes as the peloton behind them seemed quite content to soak up some sunshine and shoot the breeze for a while, Vinokourov cracking a smile for the first time in this Giro and Cadel Evans chatting happily with Liquigas-Doimo rival Ivan Basso.

With 68km remaining that gap had been whittled down to 2:00, however, with Team Sky, intent on making the most of the favourable conditions, pulling the peloton.

Through Andria the gap was a 'visible' 1:25; the long stretches of straight road providing the peloton with its first glimpse of the break since it went away several hours earlier thanks largely to the work done by Sky and HTC-Columbia.

It prompted an increase in pace from the leading trio but in reality it would be in vain; never mind, better to try and fail than to have never tried at all, and the break continued to do its best at la testa della corsa despite the odds being stacked against it.

With 46km remaining the peloton broke the magical minute mark and with it the feeling that today we might just get a proper, no-holds-barred, sprint finish complete with lead-outs from the fast mens' teams. They've been few and far between in this Giro, with breaks, crashes and confusion in the finale foiling the aspirations of those with a penchant for a bunch kick.

But it wouldn't be the 2010 Giro without a crash however, and three kilometres later the peloton obliged as it rode towards Corato, bringing down Anthony Ravard (AG2R-La Mondiale), Ignatas Konovalovas (Cervelo TestTeam) and Sebastian Lang (Omega Pharma-Lotto).

Heading through Terlizzi it was time for Sky and the rest to change the proverbial gear and with 28km left to race the gap to the Franco-Italo-British alliance up front hovered around the minute mark, enough to demand some proper attention by the chasing teams.

The dream was over for Wegelius, Dupont and Cataldo near Molfetta, with 16.7km remaining in the stage and as the peloton passed through Giovinazzo as a united unit it was time for another spill, this time taking out the luckless Ravard, Francesco Reda (Quick Step) and Greg Henderson (Team Sky), who took several kilometres to get back onto the bunch and into a position for the imminent sprint.

With Sky's train seemingly in disarray, it was left to HTC-Columbia, Liquigas-Doimo and Garmin-Transitions to set up the finale, with the Italian squad surprising onlookers by getting Sabatini into position to take second; the absence of Daniele Bennati has meant the team has concentrated on Basso and Vincenzo Nibali's chances, the young Italian explaining afterwards that he enjoyed the day's toil ahead of a tough day tomorrow.

"This was a nice day - everybody was awaiting the sun to show up," said Nibali. "Our team is happy with Sabatini coming second. We had to approach tomorrow's stage with as much energy as possible. This is the longest of the Giro [260km] and a very hard one as well."