Petacchi gets a great victory in Parma:

The first 'true' stage of the Giro had a hero: Sebastian Lang. 'What?' I hear you ask in surprise. 'Lang? Who is he? And how can he be the hero of the day if he didn't even win the stage?!?' Well, here are the answers to your questions ;)
Sebastian Lang is a 31 year-old German that rides for Omega - Pharma Lotto and this morning he went on a breakaway after just 3 kms of race. Eventually, that breakaway lasted for 215 kms.

When he attacked, the German probably thought that someone would have followed him. He waited, waited and waited, but then he realised that no one wanted to join his attack. In spite of this, he continued his action and he remained alone at the head of the race for almost 6 hours, reaching a mazimum advantage of 20 minutes of the peloton and keeping an average pace of 42 kms pro hour in the first 4 hours of race. After his loong and tiring deed, Lang received the Climber Jersey as a prize.

So, can Lang be considered the hero of the day for what he did? Imo, he can.
Talking about the stage, today the riders faced the roads that lead from Alba to Parma, two important towns that in the last century were characterised by many facts connected to anti-fascism. Alba in fact won a Gold Medal for Military Valour for the heroic activity of its citizens during the Italian resistance movement. In October 1944 in fact the town was liberated by partisans who established a Republic of Alba, which for a few weeks was able to maintain its independence from the Fascist Republic of Salò. You can find many references to this town in the works of Beppe Fenoglio, which often regard partisans. I've read just one of them ('Una questione privata') and I simply loved it.
As far as Parma is concerned, it was he hometown of Giuseppe Verdi, an Italian composer whose works were really important as far as Italian patriotism is concerned. Just think that, after the unification of Italy, people used to scream 'Viva Verdi' in order to honour Vittorio Emanuele, the king of Italy (Viva Verdi in fact meant: 'Viva Vittorio Emanuele Re d'Italia').
As far as anti-fascism is concerned, in the August 1922 (two months before Mussolini took the power), the fascist officer Italo Balbo attempted to enter in the Parma quarter of Oltretorrente. However, the citizens organized into the Arditi del Popolo ("People's assaulters") and pushed back the squadristi, showing great strength and braveness. Moreover, Parma was an important Partisan center also during World War Two.

At the start of today stage there was a minute of silence in order to commemorate the 47 year-old Pietro Ferrero, who died last month. Ferrero was the son of Michele, the leader of Ferrero SpA (the Italian factory that produces Nutella and other sweets), and he was a great cycling lover. In fact, he sponsored the Giro for a lot of time.
As soon as the race began, as already said, Lang went on a breakaway and he was caught with just 26 kms to go. At that point, Farnese Vini's Leonardo Giordani attacked. He was followed by Golas, Bakelandts, Pineau, Righi, Marzoli, Vorganov and Hunter. The breakawayers forced the peloton to chase them, whereas Vorganov got angry at Righi because he wasn't taking turns at the front. Interviewed on real time about his rider's attack, Farnese's ds candidly answered that Giordani and the other ones had 'zero chance' to make it to the finish. After all, sincerity is a rare quality :P
The breakaway was caught with about 8 kms to go. At that point the fight for the first positions in the peloton became very tough. In that moment I didn't envy the race chronists at all: how can they recognise riders in sprints as messy as today's one? I would make so many mistakes if I were them!!
Btw, Petacchi was the first one to launch the sprint with 200 meters to go. Cavendish looked susprised (Renshaw looked even more astonished) and he immediately followed the Lampre rider. Unfortunately, he wasn't fast enough and he had to be satisfied with his second place.

Right after the finish-line, Cannonball complained about Petacchi's behaviour in the sprint. 'Petacchi is a good guy but in the last 200 metres he moved three times. The judges usually relegate someone when they do that', he told Italian tv. Petacchi, on the other hand, said he didn't do anything wrong.
Cav was still angry at the judges (who didn't relegate Petacchi) when he got the pink jersey, whereas Ale - Jet seemed annoyed by Mark's complaints.
Talking about Petacchi, I noticed that he smiles even less often than Menchov. Come on Ale, you know what they say! 'Smile at life and life will smile back at you'! You're a great champion, show a bit of entusiashm when you climb on the podium!
As far as Cavendish is concerned, instead, I noticed that he speaks Italian better than English. He had a few problems in talking (everyone kept of interrupting him), but he has a lovely English accent when he talks Italian.

Third in the sprint was Manuel Belletti, 4th was Ferrari, 5th was Bozic (he did look happy as he crossed the finish-line), 6th Appollonio, 7th was Farrar, 8th was McEwen, 9th was Weylandt and 10th was a surprising Montaguti. Talking about Farrar, he had been in a perfect position until the very end of the race, when he simply got lost in the haze.
As far as Leopard Trek is concerned, Viganò had to work for Weylandt (eventual 9th). Thomas Rohregger instead crashed together with Kiryienka. I saw some scratches on his face, hopefully it was just my imagination.
Another rider who crashed this afternoon was Vorganov, who touched wheels while he was in the same breakaway as Pineau and Giordani. The sprint, in spite of the last curves, was luckily crash-free.

So, this was todaystage: Petacchi won the stage, Cavendish got the pink jersey from Pinotti (who punctured twice during the race), Lang got the green jersey, Bjorn Selander has the white one. Tomorrow there will be another flat stage and Cav is likely to take revenge on Petacchi - but still, be careful about the other guys!

(Pic 1 by Sirotti, pic 2 by Bettini)