I'm watching the highlights to see if there is anything to this Fischer/Ventoso thing.
HTC did try to do their full team sprint train today but they got disrupted. Liquigas and Sky took over at 5km to go and HTC never hit the front again. The guys in the train had to burn themselves up one by one to keep Cav in the in the top 20. Eventually he elbowed his way on to Petacchi's wheel at 1500m and held it until 100 to go.
As for Messrs Fischer and Ventoso, I don't think there's much to it. Someone (maybe David Arroyo) punched right to the front inside the last half a kilometre with Ventoso on his wheel. Fischer followed Ventoso up, but Pettachi dropped off Hondo and tried to take the wheel from Fischer. They ended up side-by-side and not quite in the slipstream. Petacchi, being the wily old veteran, anticipated the moment when Ventoso's lead out would tire and launched his sprint to one side. Fischer waited for the lead-out to actually pull over, and then launched to the other side, but didn't get through before being blocked in by the slowing Movistar rider, who was doing the right thing by moving to the barrier on the opposite side of the road from the main sprint.
No harm, no foul. Fischer chose the right wheel but one part hesitation and one part bad luck meant he had no chance.