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

['Dale]

Today is the Queen stage of the Giro d'Italia with six climbs in total. A historic, barbaric expedition through the Monti Pallidi, the Pale Mountains, that most have dubbed the “Queen Stage” or “Tappa Regina”. Putting riders in early breaks could be key for the overall contenders, as will the Giau – a worthy rival to the Fedaia for the honour of hardest climb in the Dolomites.

['Dale]

190km remaining from 210km

We've covered 20km of the stage now, and still no break from the peloton. Riders continue to try but things just aren't clicking and on each occasion the peloton react and bring everything back together.

['Dale]

We're gently climbing now as we head through the first 25km of the stage. The peloton have eased off for a moment - remember yesterday was such a brutally tough affair.

['Dale]

Some attack will stick, it's only a matter of time but for now we've still not seen a break go clear. All together after 30km of racing.

['Dale]

At this rate we may have to wait until we're on the first climb of the Passo Pordoi before we see a break move clear. There are a number of opportunities to attack before that though.

['Dale]

Lotto Soudal continue to try and make things happen at the front of the peloton but so few teams can match their enthusiasm for a suicide break. It's almost as though they've all been racing for two weeks and are starting to feel tired.

['Dale]

170km remaining from 210km

A few splits starting to appear now in the peloton as some of the pressure from the likes of Lotto begins to have an affect. We're on a shallow rise at the moment, so it's a decent enough chance for riders to try and skip clear.

['Dale]

165km remaining from 210km

We have a split in the field, with two large groups. They are roughly 25 seconds apart at the moment with Movistar having riders in both groups.

['Dale]

!!!

 

Around 35 riders are in the front group, so an even bigger group than yesterday. The time gap is at 2'30, 50km covered. We'll bring you the names as soon as we have them.

['Dale]

Movistar it seems have defaulted to Etixx's position from stage 13, and started to set a steady pace at the front of the peloton. They have the gap at 3'30 now.

['Dale]

FDJ have confirmed via Twitter that Demare has abandoned the race. No reason has been given at present but we're not aware of a fall. FDJ - so old school in many ways - on Twitter... cycling's equivalent to man landing on the moon.

['Dale]

Here's the complete composition of today's break:

 

Axel Domont, Hugo Houle (Ag2r La Mondiale), Andrey Zeits (Astana), Nicola Boem, Francesco Manuel Bongiorno, Sonny Colbrelli (Bardiani - CSF), Darwin Atapuma (BMC Racing), Moreno Moser, Nathan Brown (Cannondale), Kanstantsin Siutsou (Dimension Data), David De La Cruz, Matteo Trentin (Etixx-QuickStep), Sergey Firsanov (Gazprom-RusVelo), Stefan Denifl (IAM Cycling), Diego Ulissi, Valerio Conti, Sacha Modolo, Manuele Mori (Lampre-Merida), Tim Wellens, Pim Ligthart, Maxime Monfort (Lot Soudal), Carlos Betancu, José Herrada (Movistar), Damiano Cunego, Giacomo Berlato (NIPPO-Vini Fantini), Ruben Plaza (Orica GreenEDGE), Georg Preidler (Giant-Alpecin), Egor Silin, Rein Taaramae (Katusha), Twan Castelijns, Primoz Roglic (Lotto NL-Jumbo), Christian Knees, Nicolas Roche (Sky), Laurent Didier (Trek-Segafredo), Matteo Busato, Daniel Martinez (Wilier-Southeast).

 

Via http://www.cyclingpro.net/

['Dale]

That's a seriously powerful group of riders. Of course a few hangers on but you've got Moser, Trentin, Ulissi, Modolo, Wellens, Cunego, Betancur, Plaza, Roche and Taaramae all in there. That's a lot of firepower. If they can all work together.

['Dale]

Movistar continue to work at the front of the peloton. Ulissi is the best placed rider in GC in the move. He's at 5:18 behind Amador. This stage is perhaps too hard for him in terms of going for the win though...

['Dale]

135km remaining from 210km

 

75km of the stage covered and the break, the huge break have 4'19 over the Movistar-controlled peloton. We've not even hit the first climb of the stage. That's coming up shortly.

['Dale]

 

 

The gap though has moved out, and it's at 4'50, with the 37 leaders building on their advantage.