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The last time the Giro finished in Frosinone (2005), Paolo Bettini's sprint win was nullified due to "sprint unfairness"
May 13 update: After three difficult days, Stage 9 will be a relief to the peloton. Stage 8 finished at the southern most point of this year's Giro d'Italia in Lago Laceno and now we'll head northwest from San Giorgio nel Sannio over rolling terrain towards the west coast of Italy.
This stage will be short (166 km) and likely fast with no categorized climbs (GPMs) along two secondary highways leading up to the finish in Frosinone which is hosting its fourth Giro d'Italia stage finish. Frosinone was occupied by the French and Spanish long ago and was almost completely leveled during World War II from allied bombing.
Although this stage should end in a sprint in Frosinone, at 5 km from the finish things will get interesting. There are small rollers, twists and turns and a 2 km descent on a wide 4% gradient road. The last 2km are flat but the twists and turns continue up to the final corner at the 300m marker. So look for a strung out sprint finish. This is the kind of dodgy sprint finish Alessandro Petacchi is good at but Lampre-ISD didn't select the veteran for their squad this year.
In 2005, the last time the Giro visited Frosinone, Paolo Bettini crossed first in Frosinone (report) while wearing the Maglia Rosa but he was relegated to 4th for "sprint unfairness" after taking Baden Cooke into the boards (see photo above). — Steve