Australia's Richie Porte left previous leader Alexandre Vinokourov trailing in his wake as he snatched the lead in the Giro d'Italia on Wednesday after riders were again drenched.

The 262 kilometer 11th stage, the longest of the three-week 2010 Giro d'Italia, was so inundated with rain that the peleton wore wet weather jackets to protect them from the foul weather which has dominated this year's extravaganza.

Nothing could stop a large breakaway group early on, however, and Astana's Vinokourov was stuck way down the field as new pink jersey holder Porte took up a position towards the front.

The unheralded Saxobank rider, who had been sixth overall, suddenly has a 1 minute 42 second race lead over Spain's David Arroyo of Caisse D'Epargne.

"It was a long, hard day. I had two team mates who annihilated themselves for me. It's thanks to the team," Porte, a Tasmanian like stage nine winner Matthew Goss, told Rai TV.

"This week Tasmania is showing itself to be the centre of cycling in Australia."

Kazakhstan's Vinokourov had led since stage seven but is remarkably now down in 12th spot almost 10 minutes adrift of Porte.

Russia's Evgueni Petrov of the Katusha team won the stage after pulling away late on and whipping off his slightly ironic sunglasses as he crossed the line in the rain.

"I'm really happy. I want to say hello to my wife. I did it, I did it," he screamed to reporters.

Petrov completed the route in six hours 28 minutes 29 seconds ahead of Dario Cataldo and Carlos Sastre.

Race favorite and World Champion Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) entered the day second overall, 01:12 behind Alexandre Vinokourov (Team Astana). But both were not part of the lead group that included Evans's teammate, Brent Bookwalter, who eventually dropped back to help chase.

"It's difficult to come back on 60 riders when you only have a group of 26 chasing," BMC Racing Team sports director John Lelangue commented after the stage. Team BMC Racing is now down to five riders after Jeff Louder (fatigue) and Mauro Santambrogio (stomach problems) abandoned in today's stage.

"The Giro is still a long ways to Verona," Lelangue added and concluded "We are only halfway. The big week of mountains is coming Saturday. So it's still open - even if it will be difficult. Anything is possible. Look at the race today." But there certainly won't be many riders left to support Evans in the crucial mountain stages. Come alliances.

"That was a totally crazy stage, I have never experienced anything like it," Christian Henn, Team Milram's directeur sportif, stated after the stage. "When the large group got away, all the favorites stayed calm, nobody reacted and the group built up a huge lead unbelievably quickly. This situation was naturally optimal for us. Linus Gerdemann made the leap to the group together with Matthias Russ and could make a lot of time good.

2010 Giro d'Italia favorite Carlos Sastre (Cervelo TestTeam) sprinted to third and climbed to eighth overall, at 07:09 behind new leader Porte. More importantly, Sastre took back nearly 13 minutes on his main rivals as the huge group of more than 50 riders peeled away early in the cold and hilly stage to L'Aquila.

"I've never seen anything like this stage today. I was the last rider to bridge across to the breakaway and we quickly realized that something special was happening today," a tired but greatly relieved Sastre said after the stage. "I am very happy that the luck is finally with us again after so much bad luck in the first half of this Giro. I came to this Giro hoping to win and after today, with the great work the team did, everything is possible as we go into the second half of the race."

"Today was an historic day for the team," Sastre added and concluded "I've always said that this Giro is very long and very hard. Every day we've seen something crazy happen. Who knows what tomorrow will bring? But now we have the hardest stages ahead of us. We will ride 100 percent to try to win this Giro."

The stage finished in the central Italian city of L'Aquila, devastated by a huge earthquake in April 2009, and passed through several villages which had also been hit.

Many charity events connected to the Giro are taking place to raise money for the area.

Thursday's 12th stage goes from Citta Sant'Angelo to Porto Recanati along Italy's east coast with two tough mountain stages due at the weekend.

The Giro d'Italia, damaged by a succession of doping scandals in recent years, ends in Verona on May 30.

View more photos and full results on our stage 11 results page.

Stay tuned to us here at Roadcycling.com for full 2010 Giro d'Italia coverage including video highlights from the race in our Roadcycling.com video section and visit www.universalsports.com/cycling for live video from the Giro d'Italia.

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