America's Tyler Hamilton captured his first Giro d'Italia stage win on Sunday, beating Sergei Honchar by 31 seconds in a 30.3km time test.

Race leader Jens Heppner trailed Hamilton by 2.32 minutes in the 14th stage but retained the pink jersey for the ninth consecutive day.

Heppner, of Team Telekom, leads Australian Cadel Evans by 48 seconds and Hamilton by 1:06 minutes overall.

Evans placed third in Sunday's leg, a hilly circuit near the Adriatic resort of Ancona.

Hamilton, of Team Tiscali, dominated after recovering from knee and hip bruises suffered in bad spills during the previous stages.

Disappointing

The 29-year-old, a former team-mate of Lance Armstrong with the US Postal, clocked a winning time of 41 minutes, 21 seconds.

Ukraine's Honchar, of Fassa Bortolo, was timed in 41:52. Evans came home in 42:02, ahead of fourth-place Belgian Rik Verbrugghe.

Italy's Dario Frigo, the stage favourite, finished sixth and blamed knee injury for his disappointing performance.

He ended in 42:20, 59 seconds behind the winner.

Francesco Casagrande, a good climber and a Giro favourite, finished nearly two minutes behind Hamilton.

The Giro field have a rest day on Monday ahead of the final week, which includes tough uphill stages in the Dolomite mountains.

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