The ninth leg featured more attacks from the Carrera team, particularly from Enrico Zaina who attacked throughout the stage's closing kilometers. The "peloton" finished in fragments to the numerous attacks that occurred in the final fifteen kilometers, with the winning attack coming from Zaina and Gontchenkov. Zaina dropped Gontchenkov near the finish and won the stage by four seconds over a large chasing group. The tenth leg was a mountainous stage that navigated through Tuscany. A group of six formed at the front of the race with eleven kilometers left from which Rodolfo Massi attacked and went on to win the stage. Behind the leaders, several general classification contenders made attacks, but all failed to produce any significant time gains. The eleventh stage resulted in a sprint finish won by Cipollini, as the race prepared to enter the higher and more difficult mountains. The twelfth stage witnessed the day's breakaway survive the encroaching "peloton" by two seconds. Fabiano Fontanelli won the sprint to the line between the surviving members of the original eight-man lead group, it was his fifth victory of the season that came from participating in a breakaway.