Team HTC-Columbia's Matthew Goss won the ninth stage of the 2010 Giro d'Italia in a sprint finish Monday and Alexandre Vinokourov (Team Astana) held on to the overall lead.

Goss covered the mostly flat 187-kilometer (116-mile) leg from Frosinone to Cava De' Tirreni in 4 hours, 8 minutes, 17 seconds.

It was the first victory of the season for Goss, who usually sets up sprints for HTC-Columbia teammates Mark Cavendish and Andre Greipel. With Mark Cavendish currently in absentia because he's riding the 2010 Tour of California, Goss had the opportunity to shine and sparkle in stage 9 of the Giro - and so he did.

"It was nice to get a win," Goss said. "It was a very hard finish, slightly uphill."

Filippo Pozzato of Team Katusha crossed second and Team Garmin's Tyler Farrar was third.

Farrar, who won the second stage, took over the points jersey usually reserved for the race's top sprinter.

Vinokourov maintained a lead of 1 minute, 12 seconds over Cadel Evans (Team BMC Racing) in the overall standings.

Watch riders swim through today's stage in our video section at www.roadcycling.com/video

Four riders took part in a breakaway for most of the stage, opening up a lead of 4 minutes at one point, and the last two remaining riders - Canadian Michael Barry (Team Sky) and Mikhail Ignatiev (Team Katusha) - were caught by the main pack with 5 kilometers (3 miles) to go.

Tuesday's 10th stage traverses southern Italy, following a rolling 230-kilometer (143-mile) route from Avellino to Bitonto.

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

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