Another stage and another five-man breakaway. Those five riders left the main bunch only four miles into Monday’s stage and they led by as much as 6mins 25secs. With 35 miles to go and the advantage being reduced constantly by the bunch, three of the quintet gave up. Only Giovanni Visconti of Quickstep and Mikhael Ignatiev of Tinkoff still believed in their effort and tried to beat the chase - only to be caught with less than three miles to go.

So the stage ended the way it was supposed to - in a mass sprint. Milram, Predictor-Lotto and Liquigas did their job in chasing down the early breakaway and later efforts by Quickstep's Mateo Tosatto and Credit Agricole’s Stephen Roche, the latter being caught by the top men only 700 metres from the finish line.

Monday’s sprint was more unpredictable than the one on the second stage because Milram weren't able to set up the train for Alessandro Petacchi since they worked a lot earlier in the stage.

Thor Hushovd, one of the main contenders for the stage victory, at least on paper, suddenly turned to the right and crashed with 600 metres to go, starting a fall that also saw Damiano Cunego and Gilberto Simoni go down to the tarmac. But apart from Frenchman Yohann Géne of Bouygues Telecom, nobody seemed to suffer anything more than bruises.

The favourite after Sunday’s win was Robbie McEwen, but the Aussie was stuck in the middle of the contenders’ pack and didn’t have a chance in Monday’s sprint. Gerolsteiner worked a lot in the last four miles to help their German sprinter, Robert Forster, but he ended up in second place ahead of Panaria’s Maximiliano Richeze and behind…Petacchi!

The Italian rider burst into tears of joy and relief after crossing the line and it was such a heartbreaking sight, something that we cycling fans have been waiting for after all the doping scandals of the past months. It was a genuine show of emotion for a sprinter who had two dominant seasons, in 2004 and 2005, and who lived a nightmare last year with multiple injuries and with a loss of confidence that still seemed to affect him on Sunday.

Anyway, we have another change at the top of the leaderboard with Enrico Gasparotto back in pink thanks to his placement in Monday’s sprint ahead of teammate Danilo Di Luca. It looks as if  the Liquigas riders are enjoying this race within the team, something like the then US Postal did some years ago in the Vuelta thanks to a fantastic Team Time Trial in the first stage.