FORMER world champion Mirko Gualdi sprinted to his second biggest victory in eight years in Tuesday's 17th leg of the Giro d'Italia on the circuit that will host the 1999 world road race championships.

With Alessandro Pozzi and Colombian Jose Gonzalez in his wake, the Italian raced in after averaging almost 45 kph over the 200 km from Dalmine.

They were five minutes and 46 seconds ahead of Giro leader Ivan Gotti and his rivals, Russian Pavel Tonkov and Frenchman Luc Leblanc, but were no threat to the contenders.

Gotti takes his advantage of 51 seconds into today's 40 km time trial when his biggest worry will be Tonkov. "With the leader's pink jersey I feel stronger," Gotti said.

Gualdi won the world amateur road race title in Japan in 1990 then had to wait three years for his next success in the Tour of Poland.

He had to chase to join leaders Gonzalez and Pozzi in the final 10 kms of yesterday's stage where the first hour's racing covered almost 55 km.