Evgeni Petrov battles rain to win 11th stage of the Giro d’Italia; Richie Porte takes lead

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Petrov wins 11th stage of Giro; Porte takes lead

L’AQUILA, Italy — Evgeni Petrov fought through rain and windy conditions to win the 11th stage of the Giro d’Italia, and Richie Porte overtook the overall lead.

Petrov finished the 163-mile leg Wednesday from Lucera to L’Aquila, the longest of this year’s Giro, in 6 hours, 23 minutes and 29 seconds.

“I am very happy,” Petrov said. “I have to thank the team, all my teammates helped me today.”

Dario Cataldo finished 5 seconds behind, while Carlos Sastre broke from the chasing pack to finish third in the same time.

Porte took the pink jersey from Alexandre Vinokourov, who was unable to break free of the second group and had a punctured tire 30 miles from the finish.

“It hasn’t sunk in yet. It’s incredible,” Porte said. “It was a long, hard day and I had two teammates, Chris Sorensen and Laurent Didier, who annihilated themselves for me.”

The Australian stayed among the lead group and finished 13th, while Vinokourov was more than 12 minutes behind. Porte leads the overall standings by 1:42 over David Arroyo Duran.

Petrov pulled ahead on the final climb after reining in Linus Gerdermann’s attack in the slippery conditions.

Jan Bakelandts appeared headed for a top-three finish but crashed in a sharp turn leading into the finish and ended up 10th.

Several riders wore special jerseys to pay tribute to the town of L’Aquila, which was rocked by an earthquake last year that killed 308 people.