Alessandro Petacchi (Fassa Bortolo) is a step closer to tying a Giro d’Italia stage-win record after claiming his sixth victory on Friday.

The Italian speedster once again held off Australian sprinter Robbie McEwen (Lotto-Domo), who finished second to the seemingly unstoppable Italian, with Alexandre Usov (Phonak) finishing third.

"I'm really happy to have won for the sixth time here, which equals my record here last year," said Petacchi after coming a step closer to becoming the fourth rider of the modern era to claim seven stages in a single edition of the race.

Choo choo

Photo: AFP

"I don't know what the future holds, but I don't want to take too many risks. I have to avoid crashing, which was what happened last year, if I want to finish. My dream is to win the final stage in Milan."

In 2002, McEwen won the Tour de France green jersey for the sprinter's points classification, but the diminutive Aussie can't get near Petacchi in this year's Giro. His lone stage win so far came last week.

The Italian said that McEwen had praised him for the victory.

"I think I made the perfect sprint today," Petacchi said. "After the finish McEwen congratulated me. He told me it was phenomenal."

After a flat stage brought to life by a three-man breakaway, which lasted 180km and had a maximum lead of five minutes on the peloton, once again the battle for the stage victory was fought on the home straight.

When the last of the initial escapees, Belgian Gert Steegmans (Lotto-Domo), was caught 16km from the finish, Australian Brad McGee (FDJeux.com) appeared poised for the sprint – until Italian Marco Zanotti (Vini Caldirola) crashed with 300 meters to go, pushed into the barriers during the scramble for Petacchi's wheel. Petacchi then moved to the front and produced one of his impressive drives for the finish line to hold off McEwen by a bike length.

"I'm really happy with the way I won because I jumped a long way from the finish and managed to maintain a high speed all the way to the line," Petacchi said.

Italy's Damiano Cunego (Saeco) retained the leader's pink jersey after the 210km stage 12, from Cesena to Treviso on the Adriatic coast. In second place overall is Cunego's team leader, two-time defending champion Gilberto Simoni.

Simoni initially was deemed to have lost six seconds on the stage, leaving him 16 seconds adrift of his younger compatriot, before race officials decided to give the first 30 finishers the same time after a review.

Saturday's stage is an individual time trial over 52km from Trieste to Altopiano Carsico. –AFP and Reuters contributed to this report.