Mayo peerless in the rain

After initiating the decisive break himself on the descent of the Pian delle Fugazze, the Spaniard moved clear of Alberto Losada with 17 kilometres remaining, and preserved his lead on dangerous, rain-soaked finish to take his biggest win for his new team.

Danilo di Luca finished safely in the peloton along with his rivals, and preserves his pink jersey heading into Saturday's time-trial.

Evgeni Petrov, another member of the breakaway was the day's only significant mover. He now leapfrogs David Arroyo in the general classification into seventh.

A large group of 15 riders moved clear of the field after 30 kilometres, with the familiar figures of Paolo Bettini and Stefano Garzelli present again, though they were reeled back in as they approached towards the largest climb of the stage, the first category Pian delle Fugazze.

The punishing tempo being set by the Credit Agricole team then split the peloton in two, before Di Luca and his Liquigas team-mates moved to the front together with Andy Schleck, Gilberto Simoni and the rest of the big names in the general classification.

As Alessandro Petacchi and Bettini were dropped towards the top of the Pian delle Fugazze, Astana's Eddy Mazzoleni set pulses rushing with an attack, though he was immediately hauled back by his rivals.

Mayo then went for broke on the descent, and moved clear of the field, hotly pursued by Stefano Garzelli, Michael Rasmussen, Losada, Marco Marzano, Giovanni Visconti, Domenico Pozzovivo and Petrov.

The eight riders built up an advantage that grew to four minutes on the rather lackadaisical peloton, though as Lampre took up the chase and began to close the gap, Mayo attacked again, moving clear of Losada.

The two seemed set to fight it out for victory, until Losada was finally broken by another burst from Mayo 17 kilometres from home.

Rasmussen and Visconti both tried to bridge the gap as the finish line approached, but Mayo would not be caught, and he rolled in a full 43 seconds ahead of Visconti, with Marzano in third.