Gabriele Bosisio (LPR Brakes) has won Stage 7 of the Giro d'Italia. Bosisio took the first mountain stage of this Giro, a 180-km ride from Vesto to Pestocostanzo, in 4:45:05. Vasily Kiriyenka (Tinkoff) finished second at 0:46, and Emmanuele Sella  (CSF) took third at 1:02. Giovanni Visconti (Quick Step) remains the maglia rosa.

From the start, the racing was aggressive. After a series of abortive sallies, the peloton split. Thirty riders escaped, and maglia rosa Visconti was in the second group. Six riders--Kiriyenko, Joan Horrach (Caisse d'Epargne), Felix Cardenas (Barloworld), and Fortunato Baliani and Emmanuele Sella (CSF)--slipped away to form the break of the day. The bunch was not chasing, and at the top of the Category 1 Rionero Sanntico (131 km), the break led the field by 6:00. Kanstantin Sivtsov (High Road), Sylvester Szmyd (Lampre), Juan Manuel Garate (Quick Step), and Jurgen van den Broeck (Silence) escaped. Eventually, Alexander Efimkin (Quick Step) and Mauricio Ardila (Rabobank) joined them.

Attrition took its toll on the break, and with 10 km left, four men--Bosisio, Kiriyenka, Sella, and Cardenas--still led the race. Sella attacked and dropped Cardenas, but the Italian punctured and never caught up to the leaders. One km later, Bosisio attacked, and Kiriyenka had no answer.

For the last 50 km, LPR Brakes forced the pace for defending champion Danilo Di Luca. The Sivtsov group was absorbed and Visconti was dropped, although world champion Paolo Bettini (Quick Step) paced him back. With 17 km left, Leonardo Piepoli (Saunier Duval) attacked. One km later, Di Luca followed suit and took Alberto Contador (Astana), Joaquin Rodriguez (Caisse d'Epargne), and Riccardo Ricco (Saunier Duval) with him. Di Luca outsprinted Ricco for fifth at 2:04, with Piepoli and Contador taking sixth and seventh, respectively, at 2:07 and 2:10.  

In the overall, Visconti leads Matthias Russ (Gerolsteiner) by 0:09 and Bosisio at 5:43. Stage 8 could create more upheaval than Stage 7. The 208-km ride from Rivisondoli to Tivoli features a Category 2 climb and a series of unrated ascents before the five-km climb to the finish. Who will come out on top? Check in at www.roadcycling.com and find out!