Bennati takes lead in Tirreno-Adriatico

Finishing in a time of 3hr 54min 09sec, the Italian edged out compatriot Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre ) and Austrian Bernhard Eisel (HTC-Columbia), snatching the overall lead in the process.

Bennati now has a four seconds on overnight leader, Germany's Linus Gerdemann (Milram) and Tom Boonen of Quick Step.

The 29-year-old Liquigas rider used his team mates to position himself at the front of the pack with only kilometres to go and managed to fight off a late sprint from Petacchi and Eisel.

"I created my own stress and pressure over the last two days," said Bennati. "I am a sprinter and want to win."

For Germany's Team Milram it was a very bad day, with Gerdemann losing the race lead and two riders abandoning, due to injury and illness.

Fabian Wegmann was involved in a crash abandoning with with a suspected broken collarbone while teammate Johannes Fröhlinger succumbed to a lingering illness.

"That was a very bitter day for us," said Milram sporting director Christian Henn.

"In Fabian Wegmann and Johannes Fröhlinger we have lost two very important riders. The next few days would have been something especially for Fabian. Johannes has suffered from his intestinal infection for several days now and today it was just too much. I hope they both get well again soon."

For World Champion Cadel Evans (BMC) it was a quiet stage. The Australian sits inside the top ten on the overall classification, 13 secs behind the new race leader.

Next up for the riders in the fourth stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico is a 243-km stretch from San Gemini to Chieti, the longest of the race.

Organisers also announced in a statement they had been forced to change the route for Sunday's fifth stage because of snow on the Apennine mountains.

The race, which started on Italy's western Tyrrhenian coast, concludes on the Adriatic east coast at San Benedetto del Tronto next Tuesday.

Stage 3: 159km, San Miniato - Monsummano Terme.

1 Daniele Bennati (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo 3:54:09, 2 Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) Lampre-Farnese Vini, 3 Bernhard Eisel (Aut) Team HTC - Columbia, 4 Tyler Farrar (USA) Garmin - Transitions, 5 Juan Antonio Flecha Giannoni (Spa) Sky Professional Cycling Team, 6 Sacha Modolo (Ita) Colnago - CSF Inox, 7 Assan Bazayev (Kaz) Astana, 8 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Sky Professional Cycling Team, 9 Francesco Ginanni (Ita) Androni Giocattoli, 10 Matti Breschel (Den) Team Saxo Bank.

General classification:

1 Daniele Bennati (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo 11:44:23, 2 Linus Gerdemann (Ger) Team Milram 0:00:04, 3 Tom Boonen (Bel) Quick Step, 4 Pablo Lastras Garcia (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 0:00:08, 5 Paul Martens (Ger) Rabobank, 6 Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) Lampre-Farnese Vini, 7 Alan Perez Lezaun (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi, 8 Matti Breschel (Den) Team Saxo Bank 0:00:10, 9 Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team 0:00:13, 10 Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 0:00:14.