The Giro, my favourite tour of the year is only 2 weeks....

['Dale]

Lactic acid everywhere........

[Bonus]

22km to go, break at 28 secs.

 

Peloton have dropped the hammer now.

[Bonus]

Peloton have slowed, gap is opening up again slightly 19 to go, break at 36 secs.

[Bonus]

Crash at the back. Someone is in the ditch!

[Bonus]

2 in the ditch - they did synchronized endos

[Bonus]

A replay shows Zilioli crashing near the back of the bunch, leaving Timmer and Bobridge with nowhere to go. Fortunately they're all up and the injuries don't appear to be too serious.

[Bonus]

Three Tinkoff riders trying to catch the back of the peloton. One of them is Majka.

['Dale]

A replay shows Zilioli crashing near the back of the bunch, leaving Timmer and Bobridge with nowhere to go. Fortunately they're all up and the injuries don't appear to be too serious.

Phew!

 

Fortunate

[Bonus]

Tinkoff back in the peloton.

 

10.5 km to go, gap is 23 secs

['Dale]

Three Tinkoff riders trying to catch the back of the peloton. One of them is Majka.

Yip

mechanical problem for Majka and this is really a bad time for him to have such a problem.

['Dale]

Bobridge and Timmer exchanging notes on that crash. There's no rush for them to get back on, they just want to make it home inside the time limit.

['Dale]

It's getting to squeaky bum time in this stage, as Alex Ferguson would say. Teams are now fighting for space at the from of the bunch as Majka fights his way onto the back.

['Dale]

Majka is back in the bunch and now his team are helping him get near the front. With some narrow roads to contend with the GC riders won't want to be too far back in case of a crash.

['Dale]

With 10km to go, the riders are into Benevento and the break has just 17 seconds.

['Dale]

Giant-Alpecin have been able to sit inside the bunch for the past few kilometres with so many teams putting rides up front but they're now making moves towards the front again along with Team Sky.

['Dale]

Benevento has been decorated for the occasion with streamers all over the place. There are plenty of spectators our lining the street too.