VITTORIO VENETO, Italy -- Stefano Pirazzi won the 17th stage of the Giro dItalia on Wednesday, the first professional victory of his career while Nairo Quintana retained the overall leaders pink jersey. Pirazzi made an obscene arm gesture as he crossed the finish line and was reduced to tears following his win. "It wasnt a nice gesture, Im sorry, forgive me," Pirazzi said. "But its been five years of anger, five years of criticism. As the days went by, my moral was going down. I was here to get this victory finally, that was the target. "I was unleashing all that. Five years of criticism is a lot for a young guy. I really had to deal with a lot. Today I reached a goal that I wanted since I was a young boy watching the Giro. Im very happy. Ill enjoy it and never forget this moment." Pirazzi, who had led from the breakaway, made his move with little more than a kilometre remaining and edged out Tim Wellens and Jay McCarthy in a sprint at the end of the 204-kilometre (127-mile) stage from Sarnonico to Vittorio Veneto. The peloton crossed the line 15:36 behind Pirazzi as the top overall standings were unchanged. Quintana remained 1:41 ahead of fellow Colombian Rigoberto Uran and 3:21 ahead of Cadel Evans, with Pierre Rolland only five seconds further back. Victorias Ryder Hesjedal, the 2012 Giro champion, finished 33rd in Wednesdays stage and was in ninth overall, 4:16 back of Quintana. Svein Tuft of Langley, B.C., was in 158th after finishing 144th in stage 17. Quintana had moved into pink after Tuesdays tough leg, which was marred by confusion after some teams believed part of the route had been neutralized -- meaning the times for that section wouldnt count. "In reality there is no controversy," Quintana said. "I know what happened. Theyre creating a story which isnt there. "It would be unjust (if they took time away from me). The organization said the race wasnt neutralized so why remove an advantage that I won?" The peloton remained together for almost half the route before a group of 26 riders managed to get away. After the previous tough stage -- where the cyclists had to deal not only with both the legendary Gavia and Stelvio climbs, but with snow and rain as well -- the peloton was happy to keep a steady pace and let the escape go. The best-placed rider in the break was Damiano Cunego, who was more than 48 minutes behind Quintana, and so the pink jersey group allowed the gap to go out to more than 12 minutes. Thomas De Gendt attacked from the breakaway on the approach to the last of three classified climbs, the ascent up the Muro di Ca del Poggio. Pirazzi followed and caught the Belgian cyclist near the summit, and they were soon joined by Wellens, McCarthy and Matteo Montaguti. There were attacks off the chasing group but the quintets advantage continued to grow and it swiftly became apparent they would not be caught before the finish. The Giro returns to the mountains in Thursdays 18th stage, a 171km (106-mile) leg from Belluno, with a summit finish up to Rifugio Panarotta. The race ends on Sunday in Trieste. Wholesale Oakland Raiders Jerseys . Wawrinka, who is seeded fourth, is in the top half of the draw with Serbian Novak Djokovic. The Swiss star outlasted Djokovic in a five-set quarterfinal thriller last year and stunned Spaniard Rafael Nadal in the final to capture his first-ever Grand Slam title. Authentic Oakland Raiders Jerseys . The Flames announced Monday that Treliving, a former assistant general manager with the Coyotes, will take over the vacant GM spot in Calgary. "Im ready for this,"Treliving said. http://www.cheapraiders.com/ . With a victory seemingly slipping away late in the third quarter, his quick scoring flurry helped Golden State regain control early in the fourth. Custom Raiders Jerseys . The two-time former Formula One champion downplayed his third-place finish three weeks ago in China and said progress is going slow for Ferrari as it tries to make up ground on Mercedes. Oakland Raiders Jerseys Outlet . The Philadelphia left fielder clubbed a tiebreaking, solo home run in the seventh inning, and the Phillies edged the Red Sox, 2-1, in the middle test of a three-game interleague series at Citizens Bank Park.Tucson, AZ (SportsNetwork.com) - Arizonas home winning streak remained intact and the Wildcats regained their standing as the Pac-12 front-runners with a convincing victory over another top-10 opponent on Saturday. T.J. McConnell was nearly perfect from the floor and finished with 16 points and six assists as No. 10 Arizona bested No. 8 Utah 69-51 at McKale Center. McConnell connected on all but two of his 10 shots and made sure the Wildcats (16-2, 4-1 Pac-12) stayed competitive early. Arizonas big men, namely Stanley Johnson, took over after the break. Johnson scored all 18 of his points in the second half and pulled down nine rebounds for a frontcourt that owned a staggering 40-19 edge on the glass and a 34-14 advantage in the paint. Brandon Ashley chipped in with 14 points and eight rebounds as the Wildcats ran their home winning streak to 32 games. Im very, very proud of our team. We played with incredible energy and effort. We knew this was a big game, Arizona head coach Sean Miller said. Brandon Taylor shot 4-of-7 from behind the arc and totaled 12 points for Utah (14-3, 4-1), which won their previous seven games by an average of 23 points. The Utes jumped out to a 10-2 lead when Delon Wright banked in a 3-pointer and Taylor hit one from roughly 10 feet behind the arc. They were shooting 5-for-7 from the field over the first seven minutes, but went 11-of-34 (32.4 percent) the restt of the way.dddddddddddd Conversely, the Wildcats missed six of their first seven shots before McConnell going them going with back-to-back jumpers. Ashleys strong post move gave Arizona its first lead with under six minutes left in the first half, and McConnell, usually a pass-first guard, capped his 12-point half with a late jumper that sent the hosts into the locker room with a 31-26 advantage. A three-point contest turned into a rout thanks to Arizonas 17-3 flurry in the early stages of the second half. Johnson scored the first nine points in a variety of ways -- a 3-pointer, a tip-in of his own miss, a dunk and two free throws -- and two more free throws from Johnson made it a 52-35 game with under 12 minutes to play. Jordan Loveridge made three 3-pointers over the next five minutes to pull Utah within 57-47, but Arizona answered with the next 11 points to end any chance of a comeback. Six of those points resulted from offensive rebounds, and Ashley highlighted the late surge with a emphatic two-handed dunk. Game Notes Arizona had nearly as many offensive boards (17) as Utah did total rebounds ... The Wildcats managed 18 second-chance points to Utahs three ... The last time Utah was involved in a regular season matchup of top-10 teams was on Dec. 31, 1996 against Wake Forest ... These teams meet again in Utah on Feb. 28. 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