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

['Dale]

About a dozen riders left as Scarponi continues to set the pace for Nibali, with Amador still at the back of the GC group. They'll want to drop him before the summit, in order to isolate Valverde and negate any Amador attacks on the descent.

['Dale]

Kruijswijk going along almost unnoticed hey

Lotto' will be grinning

['Dale]

!!!

 

And he's gone. Race leader Amador has been dropped by Astana. 42km to go.

['Dale]

Go, Siutsou!!!!! ????????????????????????

[Bonus]

Pink Jersey does a runner! :-)

[HappyMartin]

Quite a ride by Amador.

 

How come Siutsou has no branding on his bike at all? Looks like he bought it on one of those Chinese carbon websites.

['Dale]

Quite a ride by Amador.

 

How come Siutsou has no branding on his bike at all? Looks like he bought it on one of those Chinese carbon websites.

Yeah

Interesting red detail by the fork

What a ride!!

['Dale]

Pink Jersey does a runner! :-)

Geeez!!

 

Impressive. Amador has made it back to the Nibali group with 30km to go.

 

 

Now to suck 23 gels to stay in touch for the final climb

['Dale]

Onto the final climb of the day and the leading trio have 3'53 on the Nibali group. It's touch and go if they can hold on for the stage win.

['Dale]

3'49 for the three leaders as Scarponi continues to set the pace on the climb. The rest of the GC contenders are nicely tucked in.

['Dale]

Chaves moves into the wind for a second, undoes his jersey, and then returns to Majka's rear wheel.

[Bonus]

As long as he doesn't have one of Floyd Landis's "Whiskeys"

['Dale]

Scarponi looks back at Nibali and checks on his team leader. Will Nibali try and attack towards the top of the climb?

['Dale]

Attapuma must weigh 49 kgs or something

Could've been a jockey in horse racing

[Bonus]

Everyone is racing now. Down out of the snow and so a bit warmer now I'm sure.

['Dale]

Once again Amador is at the back of the group as Nieve is dropped, with Scarponi gritting his teeth.