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

['Dale]

 

With a bunch sprint expected, it looks like that will be the day's breakaway as the peloton sit up and save their legs for what will be a fast and furious finish.

['Dale]

The bunch wasn't happy with the four-minute break and they have pulled it back to 2:18. There may be a few more teams interested in making the juncture to the two leaders.

['Dale]

is Lotto-Soudal that is leading the bunch at the moment so perhaps they are worried about giving someone such as Oss a little too much space.

['Dale]

The gap to the escapees has leveled out now at 2:10. Lotto-Soudal seems much happier with this arrangement.

['Dale]

With Greipel set to depart after today's stage the lead of the points competition is of course up for grabs. Arnaud Demare is in second place but Diego Ulissi is within touching distance after his win today. This is how things stood at the start of the day.

 

1 André Greipel (Ger) Lotto Soudal 119 pts

2 Arnaud Demare (Fra) FDJ 103

3 Diego Ulissi (Ita) Lampre - Merida 100

4 Giacomo Nizzolo (Ita) Trek-Segafredo 97

5 Maarten Tjallingii (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo 82

6 Sacha Modolo (Ita) Lampre - Merida 66

7 Matteo Trentin (Ita) Etixx - Quick-Step 64

8 Andrey Amador (CRc) Movistar Team 57

9 Bob Jungels (Lux) Etixx - Quick-Step 52

10 Giulio Ciccone (Ita) Bardiani CSF 47

['Dale]

It's a case of tit for tat between the breakaway and the peloton. The gap grew back out to 2:45 but has now dipped towards the two-minute mark.

['Dale]

After turning professional in 2009, Daniel Oss is certainly the most experienced of the two escapees.

 

The 29-year-old has been with BMC for the past four seasons after beginning his career with Liquigas. He has not yet won a Giro d'Italia stage but came close in 2013 when he finished second to Ramunas Navardauskas in Vajont on stage 11.

['Dale]

In contrast to Oss, Mirco Maestri is in his first season as a professional and, obviously, riding his first Grand Tour. He's had a very busy start to his career with 40 race days already this season, including a start at Milan-San Remo.

['Dale]

Gazprom are doing some work at the front of the bunch. They had Kolobnev trying to get into the break earlier on but were too late to react to Oss' initial move. Perhaps they are looking to nullify this move or this is all just to get some TV coverage. Whatever the reason, Lotto-Soudal will be happy to let them take their turn. As they dip under the 100km to go mark the gap is down to 1:47.

['Dale]

 

????????????

There is no letting off from the rain. It continues to hammer down on the riders. It is expected to keep raining right up to the finish, which will make the finishing circuit that much harder.

['Dale]

90km remaining from 182km

The average speed has dropped a little bit after the second hour of racing. It is now 41.1kph.

['Dale]

The two leaders are approaching the intermediate sprint with a gap of 2:29. With just two of them here, there will be points up for grabs in the peloton.

['Dale]

Maarten Tjallingii has gone off the front of the peloton. He wants the points at the intermediate sprint but FDJ are chasing him down.

['Dale]

It was Nizzolo that won the battle for the intermediate sprint back in the peloton. Trentin was behind with Demare fading to third, but neither of those two taking points. Daniel Oss took the full complement in the breakaway.

['Dale]

The riders are in the feed zone at the moment. Oss and Maestri have 2:23 on the peloton.

['Dale]

One of our reporters in Bibione, Stephen Farrand, tells us that organisers were considering neutralising today's highly technical finale given today's wet weather.

 

Thankfully, it is drying up and there should be no issues by the time the riders hit town.