Cipollini takes sprint win

Cipollini (right) now has 33 Giro d'Italia stage wins

Italy's Mario Cipollini edged a sprint finish to win the 19th stage of the Giro d'Italia from Alba to Busto Arsizio near Milan.

The veteran's 33rd career stage victory came at the expense of fellow Italian Marco Zanotti and German Danilo Hondo, who finished second and third respectively, both in the same time as Cipollini.

Gilberto Simoni of Italy retained the overall race lead, with the race standings remaining largely unchanged.

He has a 15-second advantage on Dario Frigo and is 4:28 ahead of Abraham Olano.

Simoni retained the pink jersey

As expected, 1998 Tour de France and Giro d'Italia winner Marco Pantani was not among the riders after retiring due to illness.

Alexis Rodriguez and Michele Coppolillo were first to attack around 35km into the stage.

At one point, they established a five-minute lead in a breakaway that lasted 110km.

But in the final stages the sprinters grouped to ensure no breakaway and it was Cipollini who took the spoils in the dash for the line.

We decided to start to save the future our sport

  Gilberto Simoni

"The public was very warm, it showed its understanding for the runners and that is very important," Cipollini said afterwards.

On Thursday, riders had refused to start the 18th stage in protest against drugs raids by Italian police on their hotels.

But they withdrew a similar threat for Friday after a seven-hour crisis meeting.

Simoni explained before Friday's stage: "We decided to start to save the future our sport."

Asked if he was saddened by what had happened, he added: "I would have been sadder if we hadn't started."