Daniele Bennati (Liquigas) took his second stage of this year's Giro after a closely fought sprint between him and fellow Italian Paolo Bettini (Quick Step). Australian Robbie McEwen (Silence-Lotto) looks to be back in form as he took a well placed 3rd.

It was a relatively uneventful stage except for when Riccardo Riccò (Saunier Duval - Scott) tried his luck with an attempt at a breakaway with less than 20 km to go. One has to wonder if he will pay for his futile efforts later when the Giro really gets tough. As a fan, it seems that Riccò is getting to be a bit too cocky. This seems to be all too common for these Italian contenders. Di Luca likes to go back and forth between the head of the peloton and his team car to display how strong he is, Gilberto Simoni (Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni) likes to complain that the only reason he is getting beat is because Basso is an alien and Riccò seems to love wasting energy on a stage he should be conserving his energy. Based on his past time trialing, Riccò needs as much energy as he can muster on Tuesday. Most pundits think that he'll lose some significant time to the Astana boys and possibly Di Luca if he can discover his time trial form.

We'll have to wait and see as the Giro takes it's next step. Expect a major shake up on GC after Tuesday's time trial.

Top 10 Results for Stage 9
1 Daniele Bennati (Ita) Liquigas......................................5.30.06
2 Paolo Bettini (Ita) Quick Step
3 Robbie McEwen (Aus) Silence - Lotto
4 Erik Zabel (Ger) Team Milram
5 Koldo Fernandez De Larrea (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi
6 Robert Förster (Ger) Gerolsteiner
7 Mark Cavendish (GBr) Team High Road
8 Tiziano dall'Antonia (Ita) CSF Group Navigare
9 Julian Dean (NZl) Slipstream Chipotle Presented By H30
10 Alexandre Usov (Blr) AG2R La Mondiale

See the complete results here.