In a day that seemed to be plagued with crashes, Daniele Bennati of Liquigas managed to stay out of trouble and come out on top in the mass sprint of today’s 221 km stage from Catania to Milazzo.

There was a huge crash with about 70 kilometers to go, and another at 20 kilometers that knocked out Bradley McGee of the CSC team. The finale was marred by a crash between Evgeny Petrov (Tinkoff) and Graeme Brown (Rabobank).

Riccardo Chiarini (LPR), Matej Jurco (Slovakia), Jeremy Roy (Française des Jeux), Mickael Buffaz (Cofidis),  Kevin Seeldraeyers (Quick Step), and Pavel Brutt (Tinkoff) managed to get off the front at the 60km mark and stayed there for the next 130 km. With 30 km to go, the peloton reeled them back in and everyone rode together into the finish.

Benatti beat out Erik Zabel (Milram) and Danilo Hondo (PVC Diquigiovanni-Androni Giocattoli) for the win. Franco Pellizotti was close enough at the end to hold on to his overall lead. American Christian Vandevelde also finished in the lead group, so he is still within striking distance of regaining the maglia rosa.

Tracking the contendors:

• Danilo di Luca is only 7 seconds off of the lead.
• Andreas Kloden - 28 seconds back
• Alberto Contador - 30 seconds
• Levi Leipheimer - 40 seconds
• Leonardo Piepoli - 1 minute, 1 second
• Gilberto Simoni - 1 minute, 2 seconds