Hondo laughs off Giro sprint error

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Danilo Hondo (Lampre-Farnese Vini) made the classic mistake of thinking he had won the sprint in Marina di Carrara, throwing his arms up in a victory salute before realising he had only won the sprint for third place behind Matt Lloyd (Omega Pharma-Lotto) and Rubens Bertogliati (Androni Giocattoli).

Fortunately he was able to see the funny side of it.

"I thought I'd won but I got it wrong. It was my mistake. But hey, I'm not the first rider to ever do that," he told Cyclingnews with a laugh.

"We went on the front on the descent and we were riding hard. I saw that we caught some riders and I thought we'd caught them all. I felt good and didn't know what to do because Petacchi had gone off the front on the descent but then was dropped on the last climb. We looked for him but he didn't come back, so I went for it. I thought I won it...but it was only for third place."

Petacchi struggling with bronchitis

Petacchi finished 95th on the stage, 4:11 behind Lloyd and almost three minutes behind Hondo. The stage finished just a few kilometres from his home but the late climbs meant it was always going to be difficult for the veteran Italian sprinter to win the stage. He tried to get a gap on the descent of the Spolverina so he could ride the last climb, the Bedizzano, at his own pace but his plan didn't work.

Petacchi has been struggling with bronchitis and was not in a good mood after missing out on another chance of victory in this year's Giro.

"I had good legs and wanted to try and win it but it didn't happen," he said. "I went off the front to try and do the climb at my own pace and perhaps stay with the bunch but they never let me go.

"I'm suffering a lot with this bronchitis. I can't shake it off. I've taken antibiotics and I just hope I can get better for the other sprints, otherwise this Giro is going to be uphill all the way."