French rider John Gadret used a late attack to win the 11th stage of the Giro d'Italia yesterday and dedicated his victory to rider Wouter Weylandt on the day of the Belgian's funeral.
Alberto Contador retained the overall lead.
Gadret attacked on the uphill finish with a few hundred meters to go and clocked 3 hours, 33 minutes, 11 seconds over the hilly 144-kilometer (89-mile) route from Tortoreto Lido to Castelfidardo.
Joaquin Rodriguez of Spain crossed second and Italian champion Giovanni Visconti was third, both with the same time as Gadret.
Jose Serpa finished fourth ahead of Contador in fifth.
Two other race favorites — Michele Scarponi (eighth) and Vincenzo Nibali (10th) — also finished in the top 10.
A minute of silence was observed at the start of the stage in memory of Weylandt, who died when he crashed after clipping a wall during a descent in the third stage. The funeral was held in Ghent, Belgium, yesterday.
Representing all the riders, Britain's David Millar made a short, touching speech in Weylandt's honour, then many riders took their helmets off and hung them on their handlebars as they stood in tribute to their fallen colleague.
Gadret raised both arms and pointed two fingers to the sky as he crossed the line, which he said was a tribute to Weylandt.
"I thought about it all day, because we're all a big family in cycling," Gadret said.
Several riders attempted early breakaways but they were all swallowed up by the main pack before another nine-man group got away with 80 kilometers (50 miles) to go. Two more riders then caught up to make it an 11-man breakaway.
One of the riders in the breakaway was Christophe Le Mevel of France, who started the stage third overall.
The breakaway gained a lead of more than two minutes at one point and Spanish rider Daniel Moreno Fernandez then charged into the lead on his own and was joined by Ignatas Konovalovas of Lithuania with less than 10 kilometers (six miles) to go.
The chasing pack caught Konovalovas and Moreno in the final kilometer, and that's when Gadret launched his decisive attack.
Le Mevel fell behind the main pack at the finish and dropped from third to fourth overall, bumping Nibali up to third.
Contador remained 59 seconds ahead of Belarus rider Kanstantsin Sivtsov, with Nibali 1:21 back.
Contador was fined 1,000 Swiss Francs ($1,130) for skipping the overall leader's press conference Tuesday. The Spaniard explained Wednesday that the race is won "in the hotel," referring to recuperation time between stages.
"I didn't come to the press conference because it was a normal day in which nothing interesting happened and the day's protagonist was someone else, (Mark) Cavendish," Contador said.
Stage 12 today is a mostly flat 184-kilometer (114-mile) leg from Castelfidardo to Ravenna that should be the final chance for sprinters to shine.