Giro D'Italia 2016

Fancy a break to stick today. Could be anyone but I'm going to say Kadri.

Doesn't look like Kadri's in this break....but Betancur is!

Lampre have a lot of men up the road. Who just stacked it, am watching with the volume off.

Crash at the top of the mountain is a new one...

Strong ride by Nieve yesterday. I thought Sky would've saved him for today's stage though.

Which is a monster. 6 cols, all but one in excess of 2000 metres. The penultimate climb, the Giau, is the hardest with 10kms at 10% average. The last couple of kms of the final climb are tough but it's fairly gentle until then at around 5% average.

I'd expect Amador to fall away today, it'll be interesting to see who remains in contention for the overall at the end of the stage.

Expect it'll be two races again today.

Won't take much for a break to go and doubt any team will feel a duty to chase.

It looks completely brutal.

It's essentially the Maratona della Dolomites course (except that does the Campalongo twice). A tough day out for sure, but not as mental as that Vuelta stage in Andorra last year.

Got to cross that this year for TCR.
Will watch the highlights of todays stage tonight.

I've done a lot of today's climbs - sadly not the Giau though. A big thunderstorm turned me back.
The Dolomites are possibly the most incredible place I've ever been. So spectacularly beautiful, a new mountain round every corner. As amazing as it looks on telly, it's not a patch on seeing it for yourself. I really, really want to be back there. The riding is awesome... and so intensely hard. The easiest climbs average at about 8%; some of them average more like 10% with huge long 15% stretches - and I mean like 3-4km long stretches. Awesome. I was broken.

Absolutely agree, the most beautiful mountain range I've ridden. The colours in the rocks are amazing.

I've done the Giau, unrelenting and hard, but when it opens up at the top the scenery takes what's left of your breath away.

Do you even Ide Hill bro?

The coffee's a bit better than at the Ide Hill cafe too.

Amador descending like a stone, almost getting back on to the group, hope he can do enough to wear pink another day which will be good for Team Gigantic-Alpaca in the Armchair DS league...

edit: fucking nibbles. Still a couple of my riders up there tho.

P.s. First live stage I've had chance to tune into this year.

Commentators speaking on Nibali as if his day's been a total disaster, Chaves and Kruijswijk have dropped him yes but surely he's also put time into everyone else.

He seems to be catching the Chaves group.
Vai Estaban!!!

Whoa, that fan just got mowed the fuck down!

Was watching it on the tracker, can't wait to watch the highlights!

Great stage that - was afraid it would be so hard that the riders wouldn;t be able to attack. How wrong I was! A real shake-up, and whilst there's people who have lost a lot of time there's still no obvious winner.

Yeah that was awesome, felt sorry for Atapuma but you could see just how fucked he was at 2 or 3 km to go, wobbling everywhere.

Really glad Chaves got it, and the backstage pass was fun.

Fantasy team still lingering in the top 3, shame half of my team have buggered off home.

ostrich or humming bird egg ?

Sean Kelly had only seen chicken eggs until he was 26. Fact.

Watced the highlights. Amazing. Chavez wow.

Shame for the bmc guy, but racing racing.
Can't say I'm sorry for valverde.
Nibali is down but far from out.
Excited for today, the shark is a fighter.

And kreiswick (sp) are lotto strong enough to hold it, he's got a big time gap and looked strong. Really hope lotto can muscle.

Their next best rider yesterday was 30 minutes down. Astana will have a numerical advantage that's for sure.

I find mountain TTs impossible to predict, but usually the strongest climbers do well so Kruiswijk, Chaves and Nibali should do well today. I'd be surprised if someone else is in pink tonight. It sets it up nicely for the two Alpine stages at the end of the week.

Shame for him they don't have strength, wonder if we'll see him moving teams. He's provedhes strong and just needs a team behind him.

Yeah today will show how people's form really is. And yes, don't think pibk will change, he's got a decent gap to Chavez and even bigger to nibali. They will both need to work him over and to then crack him when he's isolated next week.

I do look at Lotto-Jumbo and often wonder what the hell their recruitment strategy is. They've some decent riders, like Kruiswijk, Vanmarcke and Gesink, yet you can guarantee that none of them will have support when they need it. Baffling.