Pineau nabs Quick Step's second stage

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A slogan used by a major auto manufacturer several years ago asked rhetorically: 'Isn't it nice when things just work?' This was the case for today's long breakaway, much to the chagrin of the sprinters' teams and completely to the delight of Jerome Pineau; spending the day off the front 'just worked' and he delivered Quick Step's second stage victory of this year's Giro.

For the teams of the fast men - the likes of Greg Henderson (Team Sky), Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Transitions), Alessandro Petacchi (Lamre-Farnese Vini) and André Greipel (HTC-Columbia) - that slogan couldn't have been further from the truth as they failed to bridge the final 100m between themselves and the plucky trio that had spent all bar 15km of the day's 162km parcours off the front of the peloton.

While the trains of HTC-Columbia and Team Sky seemed to be on rails over the last 10km of the stage, hesitation and a few strange faces trying in vain to take back precious seconds in the sprint finish undid the solid work done by Lampre in the final 40km, when the Italian squad had increased the pace and realised the need to catch the four riders in front.

In a finish similar to stage five of last year's Tour de France, when Thomas Voeckler held off a hard-charging peloton in Perpignan - complete with a rampant Mark Cavendish - to record the win after risking all to succeed the hard way, Pineau prevailed like his countryman, reaping the rewards of keeping the faith in the break and possessing the legs to seal the deal.

"It's been five years since I last won [his last victory coming at Paris-Bourges in 2004]. This is my nicest victory ever and it happened in a Grand Tour," said Pineau.

"Three weeks ago I called [Quick Step coach] Luca [Guercilena] and I told him the Giro would be the right race to bring my confidence back. I wanted to try and win a stage. In only five days, that makes two stage wins for Quick Step."

Like Voeckler, it was another Bbox Bouygues Telecom rider, one who also rode last year's Tour, involved in the successful break today. Yukiya Arashiro undoubtedly won himself a legion of fans in Italy after his performance today, taking third but providing the spark for the breakaway's birth and the impetus to take it all the way to the finish.

Liquigas-Doimo's Vincenzo Nibali held onto the maglia rosa with the same 13 second gap over his teammate Ivan Basso as there were no major changes to the overall classification.

Conjuring Il Campionissimo...

On a day dedicated to the memory of Fausto Coppi, 'Il Campionissimo' would have been proud of the efforts of the four men who animated the day's racing.

Paul Voss (Team Milram), Yukiya Arashiro (Bbox Bouygues Telecom), Jerome Pineau (Quick Step) and Julien Fouchard (Cofidis) formed the day's selection after the early machinations, and 25km into the stage the right formula had been found.

With the first 70km of the stage a gentle downhill run to Tortona - the town next to the village of Castellania, where Coppi was born - the break was able to garner a gap in excess of four minutes.

Soon after this point however, Lampre-Farnese Vini, intent on not missing the boat and getting its experienced sprinter Alessandro Petacchi on board, began the task of pegging back the leading foursome as it approached the first climb to Avolasca.

And while the big bunch looked like catching the break on the second climb - the Passo Coppi - the break remained over three minutes in front of its pursuers despite Lampre looking intent on the important business of setting up Ale-Jet for a sprint finish - something that has been rare for the veteran Italian thus far at this year's Giro.

Pineau said after the finish that the spirit of Coppi had inspired him as he rode through the legendary Italian rider's home region. "To win on the soil of Fausto Coppi is very important. On the second hill today, I saw a banner for Fausto Coppi. I had good legs and I thought maybe this would be a good sign for me to win."

With 30km until stage's end, and as the break passed the finish line for the first time, the gap remained at 2:50; it appeared for all money that the escape wouldn't be crossing the finish line first when it made its way there for the second time, regardless of how much inspiration could be found on the side of the road.

This seemed a virtual inevitability when soon after the escape group lost Voss, who pulled the pin on his efforts off the front for the day, having achieved his objective of collecting more points in the mountains classification.

It was a brave effort from the remaining trio; while Arashiro appeared to be struggling with 30km to go he found a second [possibly third] wind and continued to work with Pineau and Fouchard.

Behind them the chase dramatically increased in pace with Garmin-Transitions, Sky and HTC-Columbia taking over from Lampre as the teams throwing everything at the leading trio; with five kilometres remaining the gap had decreased to less than a minute but still the Franco-Japanese alliance continued to co-operate with the finish oh-so-close.

Eventually the catch never materialised, the joyous uncertainty of this year's Giro continuing at the end of a tough week that has already seen drama aplenty and another fortnight of racing that promises more of the same.

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