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Thor Hushovd (NOR) is back in training after breaking his collarbone during a training ride in Italy. He underwent a successful operation and is feeling good.

Italy's Manuel Belletti of the Colnago team wins the 13th stage of the Giro d'Italia.

Italy's Manuel Belletti of the Colnago team wins the 13th stage of the Giro d'Italia.

Italy's Manuel Belletti of the Colnago team won the 13th stage of the Giro d'Italia on Friday.

PORTO RECANATI, Italy, May 20, 2010 (AFP) – Italy’s Filippo Pozzato won Thursday’s 12th stage of the Tour of Italy with Australian Riche Porte holding on to the leader’s pink jersey.

Pozzato, the first Italian to pick up a stage win since the start in Amsterdam, prevailed in a sprint for the line after the 206km run from French duo Thomas Voeckler and Jerome Pineau

This trio headed a group of 10 riders who had detached themselves from the main bunch a dozen kilometres from Porto Recanati.

Tempers flared in the final push when Spain’s Carlos Sastre and Australian world champion Cadel Evans had angry words with a rival rider.

The peloton crossed the line 10 seconds adrift of the leaders with half a wheel splitting the first two home.

“It’s a dream to win on the Giro whilst in possession of the Italian world champion’s jersey,” said Katusha team rider Pozatto.

“This season has been difficult,” the 28-year-old who won the Milan-SanRemo classic in 2006, added.

“I went for this victory with my heart, I needed this success.”

Porte, of the Team Saxo Bank, said he was having to pinch himself.

“For me it really is unbelievable to wear this precious Maglia Rosa,” he said. “Not even in my remotest dreams I had imagined something so great.

“I sometimes get lost in thought and I can hardly believe what’s happening to me.”

Friday’s 13th stage takes the riders on a run from Porto Recanati to Casenatico, the hometown of 1998 Giro winner Marco Pantani who died in 2004.

STAGE RESULTS
1. Filippo Pozzato (ITA/KAT) 5hr 15min 50sec
2. Thomas Voeckler (FRA/BTL) at 0:00s
3. Jerome Pineau (FRA/QST) 0:00.
4. Stefano Garzelli (ITA/ASA) 0:00.
5. Alexandre Vinokourov (KAZ/AST) 0:00.
6. Vincenzo Nibali (ITA/LIQ) 0:00.
7. Marco Pinotti (ITA/THR) 0:00.
8. Michele Scarponi (ITA/AND) 0:00.
9. Damiano Cunego (ITA/LAM) 0:00.
10. Ivan Basso (ITA/LIQ) 0:00.
11. Robbie McEwen (AUS/KAT) 0:10.
12. Manuel Belletti (ITA/CSF) 0:10.
13. Andre Greipel (GER/THR) 0:10.
14. Leonardo Duque (COL/COF) 0:10.
15. William Bonnet (FRA/BTL) 0:10.
16. Greg Henderson (NZL/SKY) 0:10.
17. Sebastien Hinault (FRA/ALM) 0:10.
18. Michiel Elijzen (NED/OLO) 0:10.
19. Tyler Farrar (USA/GRM) 0:10.
20. Danilo Hondo (GER/LAM) 0:10.
Selected
25. Richie Porte (AUS/SAX) 0:10.
29. Cadel Evans (AUS/BMC) 0:10.
52. Carlos Sastre (ESP/CTT) 0:10.
58. Bradley Wiggins (GBR/SKY) 0:10.
60. Svein Tuft (CAN/GRM) 0:21.
71. Michael Barry (CAN/SKY) 0:24.
107. David Millar (GBR/GRM) 0:36.
169. Cameron Meyer (AUS/GRM) 10:52.

Overall
1. Richie Porte (AUS/SAX) 50hr 46min 16sec
2. David Arroyo (ESP/GCE) at 1:42.
3. Robert Kiserlovski (CRO/LIQ) 1:56.
4. Xavier Tondo (ESP/CTT) 3:54.
5. Valerio Agnoli (ITA/LIQ) 4:41.
6. Alexander Efimkin (RUS/ALM) 5:16.
7. Linus Gerdemann (GER/MRM) 5:34.
8. Carlos Sastre (ESP/CTT) 7:09.
9. Laurent Didier (LUX/SAX) 7:24.
10. Bradley Wiggins (GBR/SKY) 8:14.
11. Jan Bakelants (BEL/OLO) 8:35.
12. Alexandre Vinokourov (KAZ/AST) 9:48.
13. Cadel Evans (AUS/BMC) 11:10.
14. Vincenzo Nibali (ITA/LIQ) 11:18.
15. Ivan Basso (ITA/LIQ) 11:39.
16. Marco Pinotti (ITA/THR) 12:05.
17. Francis de Greef (BEL/OLO) 12:21.
18. Stefano Garzelli (ITA/ASA) 12:32.
19. Vladimir Karpets (RUS/KAT) 12:32.
20. Damiano Cunego (ITA/LAM) 12:53.
21. Michele Scarponi (ITA/AND) 12:54.
Selected
28. David Millar (GBR/GRM) 19:14.
35. Michael Barry (CAN/SKY) 33:43.
39. Filippo Pozzato (ITA/KAT) 37:40.
144. Svein Tuft (CAN/GRM) 1h54:36.
169. Jack Bobridge (AUS/GRM) 2h34:07.

Italy's Filippo Pozzato of team Katusha won the 12th stage of the Giro d'Italia.

Italy's Filippo Pozzato of team Katusha won the 12th stage of the Giro d'Italia.

National champion Filippo Pozzato claimed a first victory for Italy at this year's Giro d'Italia by winning stage 12.

If riders were hoping to catch their collective breath in Thursday’s cruise along the Adriatico coast following Wednesday’s blockbuster stage, they were wrong.

The 208km 12^th stage followed the script until the pack hit a small, third-category climb with 11.5km to go. After the day’s three-man break was reeled in, some very big guns moved to the front and drilled it to the line, hoping to regain some of their dignity and perhaps gain back some of the nearly 13 minutes they lost to l’Aquila.

Filippo Pozzato won Katusha’s second-straight stage in a 10-up sprint while the likes of Ivan Basso, Vicenzo Nibali, Damiano Cunego, Alexander Vinokourov and Michele Scarponi – some of the big losers in Wednesday’s stage – got back 10 seconds on their rivals.

Pozzato held off Thomas Voeckler (Bouygues Telecom) and Jerome Pineau (Quick Step) to win Italy’s first individual stage so far in this Giro.

“I am very happy to win today, especially to win in the Italian national jersey. I love the Giro and I used to watch the race by the side of the road with my father,” Pozzato said. “It was a complicated finale and I followed out the GC favorites when they attacked. That was a surprise. I had to keep a cool head in the sprint when Nibali and Vinokourov went, because I still had Pineau and Voeckler to worry about.”

How far can Porte go?

Richie Porte (Saxo Bank) finished safely in the main pack to defend the pink jersey after inheriting the pink tunic in Wednesday’s epic breakaway.

The fresh-faced Tasmanian is the big surprise of this Giro so far and will roll into the final week with a big head start on the heavy favorites.

Even Porte doesn’t know how far the neo-pro can go.

“To be honest, to have the pink jersey right now is kind of a victory in itself. This is my first grand tour, I’m in the lead at the end of the second week, that’s pretty incredible,” he said. “Let’s see what happens next week. It’s been the craziest race I’ve ever done. You can’t rule anything out, can you?”

Porte is no slouch in the mountains, having raced in Italy as an amateur, winning a time trial in last year’s Baby Giro and a mountain stage in 2008.

The dust was still settling following Wednesday’s stage. Cadel Evans (BMC) said people shouldn’t overlook his young compatriot.

“I think he is going to surprise a few, I think he is going to be a bit better than people think,” Evans said before Thursday’s start, before criticizing the performance of Astana and Liquigas. “Yeah, normally when you have the lead of the race it is your job to control it.  Of course, we are all looking at Vinokourov to do that.  If you don’t have the team to do that normally you start putting yourself into big groups, easy to say afterwards. You don’t know it before it is too late.”

Vincenzo Nibali – who along with Evans lost nearly 13 minutes to the breakaway group – said the only danger riders to sneak away were David Arroyo (Caisse d’Epargne) and Carlos Sastre (Cervélo).

“Yesterday was one of those strange days in the Giro. There’s nothing we can do about it now, we just have to deal with it,” Nibali said before the start. “I believe the Giro is still wide open. Anything can happen. We’ll have a good opportunity once the big mountains arrive.”

Farrar loses red jersey

Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Transitions) ceded the red points jersey Thursday when the race jury penalized him 25 points for finishing beyond the time limit as part of the last group in Wednesday’s harrowing stage to L’Aquila.

Even before Jerome Pineau (Quick Step) sprinted to third in the stage and took it outright, Farrar already knew his days in red were numbered.

In Wednesday’s stage, Farrar finished 142^nd at 46:31 behind stage-winner Evgeni Petrov (Katusha) as part of a group of 41 riders. The group was beyond the time limit, but rather than eliminating such a large group of riders, the race jury cited the horrific weather conditions and imposed a 25-point penalty on everyone in the group.

“I think it makes it impossible for me to win the points jersey,” Farrar said of the penalty. “There are too many mountain stages. The climbers are going to score a lot of points. It’s been fun having it, but I don’t think I’ll have it too much longer. The rules are the rules, so you cannot change that.”

Farrar raced Thursday in red, but his margin was knocked down considerably. He started the stage leading Evans with 59 points to Evans’ 52.

By the end of the stage, Pineau sprinted third in the stage to snag 18 points and vault into the lead with 66 points. With the breakaway taking the stage victory up the road, Farrar didn’t take any points on the stage. Pineau now leads with 66 points, tied with Farrar and Alexander Vinokourov (Astana) with 59.

The late breakaway surprised the sprinters and held on to win 10 seconds ahead of the chasing bunch. Filippo Pozzato took Katusha’s second-straight victory and Katusha’s Robbie McEwen led the bunch across the line.

“It was a hard little climb. All the sprinters were kind of at the back at the top of it, and it took us awhile to get our teams organized and it was too late,” Farrar told VeloNews at the line. “It was a nice move by those guys.”

A winner of two stages so far at this Giro, Farrar said he will take the Giro “day to day” as it enters the final week.

Evans, Righi fined for late-race punches

If Thursday’s stage wasn’t wild enough, Cadel Evans (BMC) and Daniele Righi (Lampre) nearly went to blows as the pack roared in for the final sprint.

Each were fined 2,000 Swiss francs by the race jury for “unseemly behavior for the image of cycling.”

The world champion said Righi disrupted his sprint, telling La Gazzetta TV: “Righi made a mistake, he’s dangerous. He went to the front and braked. You don’t do that.”

Perhaps Evans’ nerves are starting to show. He’s down to four BMC teammates and was isolated late in the stage without friendly jerseys when the GC faves tore up the road.

“I don’t understand the sprinter teams. First they pull, then they are not there for the final,” Evans said. “I am not happy with how today’s stage went. And, yeah, I only have a few teammates.”

Righi, however, was exasperated with Evans’s reaction, saying it was the world champion’s fault, not his.

“I don’t understand what he did. I was doing my ride and then suddenly he’s swinging at me,” Righi said after the stage. “I certainly didn’t expect that. It was very dangerous because he could have caused a crash.”

Never a dull day at the Giro d’Italia.

(Related: 2010 Giro d’Italia route).

Complete results

Quick results

Stage results

• 1. Filippo POZZATO (ITA) Team Katusha in 5:15:50
• 2. Thomas VOECKLER (FRA) BBox Bouygues Telecom at 0
• 3. Jérôme PINEAU (FRA) Quick Step at 0
• 4. Stefano GARZELLI (ITA) Acqua & Sapone-Caffe Mokambo at 0
• 5. Alexandre VINOKOUROV (KAZ) Astana at 0

GC standings

• 1. Richie PORTE (Australia) Team Saxo Bank in 50:46:16
• 2. David ARROYO DURAN (Spain) Caisse D’Epargne at 1:42
• 3. Robert KISERLOVSKI (Croatia) Liquigas-Doimo at 1:56
• 4. Xavier TONDO VOLPINI (Spain) Cervélo TestTeam at 3:54
• 5. Valerio AGNOLI (Italy) Liquigas-Doimo at 4:41
• 6. Alexander EFIMKIN (Russia) Ag2r La Mondiale at 5:16
• 7. Linus GERDEMANN (Germany) Milram at 5:34
• 8. Carlos SASTRE CANDIL (Spain) Cervélo TestTeam at 7:09

Francesco Chicchi of Italy bolts to the front of a large sprinting group to claim the fourth stage of the Tour of California.