Rabobank's Peter Weening won alone on the dirt roads in the countryside north of Rome as racing returned to the Giro d'Italia today in earnest. Weening attacked along with AG2R's John Gadret on the second of three dirt sections in the final 35km of the race, and survived alone despite a stiff test of his climbing abilities in the last 3km, when he saw his lead shrink from 43 seconds to 12 in the ascent to the finishing town of Orvieto. But survive he did, with the mountain men nipping at his heels, and he will ride tomorrow in the maglia rosa as a result.
After the tragic death of Wouter Weylandt stopped the Giro in its tracks over the emotional last two 
days, the riders returned to some level of normalcy today. There were nervous moments on the descents, no shortage of routine crashes, and one serious crash where Weening's young teammate Tom Jelte Slagter crashed badly on a flat road and appeared to suffer a serious hip injury. BMC's Martin Kohler made the day's long-range attack, surviving alone until Weening and Gadret caught him inside of 10km. Results:
- Peter Weening, Rabobank
- Fabio Duarte, Geox, at 0.08
- Jose Serpa, Androni, s.t.
- Christophe Le Mevel, Garmin, s.t.
- Oscar Gatto, , s.t.
- Vincenzo Nibali, Liquigas, s.t.
And the GC:
- Weening
- Marco Pinotti, HTC, at 0.08
- Kanstantin Sivstov, HTC, s.t.
Photo courtesy Giro d'Italia