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

['Dale]

120km remaining from 190km

The trio's lead is up to 8:25.

['Dale]

The lead of the trio is up to 9:30!

['Dale]

With only three riders in the break, the peloton seems happy to let them open a big gap.

['Dale]

10 mins for th break ????????????????????????

[tombeej]

5:15 deficit now.

 

The gap is dropping quite quickly (about 1 minute for every 5 km). 18 km to the first intermediate sprint and 28 km to the second one.

 

So there's a good chance that the break will be caught before the second intermediate sprint.

['Dale]

Under 70km to go and the riders are making their way along, stress-free, soaking up the sun that's shining like it's the height of summer.

['Dale]

Movistar, Astana, Giant, and Etixx are the teams gathered with numbers at the head of the bunch.

[tombeej]

Looks like the peloton has sat up again - the gap has stopped dropping.

Doubt the 2nd intermediate sprint will be contested at this rate.

['Dale]

First intermediate sprint now and it's Tjallingii who strikes out and collects some points in the red jersey standings, along with three bonus seconds in the overall standings.

['Dale]

The gap to the break is falling like the arms of the Dutch windmills are turning - steadily. It's under the 4-minute mark now.

['Dale]

Under the 60km to go mark now as Sky, naturally, hit the front of the bunch. As well as protecting overall contender Mikel Landa, they'll be looking to deliver sprinter Elia Viviani to today's finish.

['Dale]

The bonus seconds on offer at that sprint have all been snaffled up but the breakaway riders. That will almost certainly be the case at the next sprint at -48km as well. Dumoulin's pink jersey should be safe today, but Marcel Kittel could pile on the pressure with a stage win and the 10 bonus seconds that brings with it.

['Dale]

Tjallingii once again gets maximum red jersey points at this second intermediate sprint.

['Dale]

 

That second sprint was located at the top of the relatively mild Berg en Dal climb. The riders are now looping around to tackle it once more, and this time it will count towards the King of the Mountains classification.

['Dale]

The trio fought hard for the KOM

 

But Omar Freile is the strongest and wins the sprint. He will pull on the first blue climber's jersey after the finish in Nijmegen.

 

DIDATA IN DOTS!!!! ????????????????????????

['Dale]

 

The stage is covering some twisting, narrow roads but there have been no problems or crashes due to the steady pace.