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

['Dale]

The riders have rolled out of Sulmona and, in contrast to yesterday, the sun is shining.

['Dale]

It's a tricky start with an early second-category climb, and there is rolling terrain thereafter, though nothing unduly difficult. The key test will be the late fourth-cat climb and gentle downhill in to the finish. The sprinters teams will be looking to keep things firmly under control but we could see some opportunistic attacks.

['Dale]

 

We have some early attacks and it looks like a small group has gone up the road. Nippo Vini Fantini, the Italian Pro Conti team for whom it is a major objective in this race to be present in the breaks, are pulling on the front of the peloton, so have clearly not made it in.

['Dale]

 

The three riders who have opened up a gap are Patrick Grestch (Ag2r-La Mondiale), Stefan Küng (BMC) and Jay McCarthy (Tinkoff).

['Dale]

Cristian Rodriguez was also part of that move initially but has since dropped back. Nippo still chasing, and the escapees have a lead of around 30 seconds as it stands.

['Dale]

The riders are on the early cat-2 climb of Le Svolte Di Popoli and the break have extended their lead towards the minute-mark.

['Dale]

Nippo, of course, are also defending the mountains classification jersey of Damiano Cunego. If they could have kept things together it would have been a good opportunity for the Italian to pick up more KOM points.

['Dale]

!!!

 

 

The pace is high in the bunch on this climb. Some riders are already being dropped, and the gap to the break is coming down.

['Dale]

Cunego attacks, in search of KOM points.

['Dale]

Cunego drags a few riders with him but they can't reach the leaders in time. Here's the order in which they crested the climb:

 

1. Kung

2. McCarthy

3. Gretsch

4. Tim Wellens (Lotto Soudal)

5. Cunego

6. Giovanni Visconti (Movistar)

['Dale]

Wow ????

 

Everything has broken up on that climb to a greater extent than we had anticipated. The main group is down to about 40 riders, with several small groups on the road, and the break's advantage is slim.

['Dale]

So, the break has been caught, and there is a front group of around 50 riders, which includes Dumoulin. We might have expected things to calm down and come back together in the aftermath of the climb but the pace is still high and there is a group containing the main sprinters which is 1:30 in arrears. Groups in between, too.

['Dale]

The riders hit the 38-kilometre mark after one hour of racing.

['Dale]

This race is simply not settling down. More moves going off the front of the bunch. The rain has stopped for now.

['Dale]

We're still awaiting confirmation of who's in the group at the back, but we know that Marcel Kittel, and probably many other sprinters, are there. They find themselves 2 minutes behind now, and this is looking like a really complicated affair now for the fast men.

['Dale]

The second and third groups on the road have now merged, so we have one large chase group over two minutes down on the leading group of 50.