Great start in the Giro. Winning the TTT, then Kittel showing he is the fastest sprinter and now 3 riders with the best GT contenders. Gesink will have very strong support to beat Anton.

This is a monstrous result. Keep this up and you'll end with 5 riders in top 10

Stage 5

One flat stage of 176 kilometres along the Adriatic coast between Altamura and Bari. That is what stage 5 is all about.



13km to go
It's a boring stage today. Nothing happens in the first 70 kilometres, and when a group of 5 riders forms a breakaway, the peloton never let them create a margin bigger than 3 minutes.
The sprinter teams have it all under control, and with 13km to go, Leonardo Duque (yep, him again), Jimmy Engoulvent, Jérémy Roy, Gavin Mannion and Carlos Betancourt get thanked for their efforts.


4km to go
The maglia rosa is doing the work! Thomas De Gendt is leading our sprint train (Flat 80), followed by Theo Bos & Marcel Kittel. Ben Swift is in the wheel of the German, followed by Borut Bozic and Grega Bole. Both Farrar and Goss are pretty far behind. Omega Pharma worked a lot in the chase, so their train got derailed because of no energy left...


1km to go
Ultimo kilometro! Theo Bos has launched his German team mate under the red banner. Ben Swift is still in Kittels wheel, while Tyler Farrar his on the right side of the road. The American was forced to start his sprint with over 2km to go, due to bad placening after his train couldn't stay in the lead.


Finish
Marcel Kittel (daily form +1) can't shake off Swift and has to give the full 100% to stay in the lead. Swift comes close, but it's not enough to prevent the German in taking his 2nd (and our 3rd) stage win this Giro d'Italia.
Tyler Farrar finishes in 3rd place, and no time gaps occur.


Results

1	Marcel Kittel	Monster Energy - Subway	3h53'38
2	Ben Swift	Sky ProCycling	s.t.
3	Tyler Farrar	Omega Pharma - Quick·Step	s.t.
4	Mark Renshaw	Rabobank Cycling Team	s.t.
5	Borut Božic	Liquigas - Cannondale	s.t.
6	Andrea Guardini	Farnese Vini - Neri Sottoli	s.t.
7	Fabio Sabatini	Acqua & Sapone	s.t.
8	Matthew Goss	Lotto - Belisol	s.t.
9	Theo Bos	Monster Energy - Subway	s.t.
10	Denis Galimzyanov	Katusha Team	s.t.

GC
No changes.

1	Thomas De Gendt	Monster Energy - Subway	18h46'20
2	Robert Gesink	Monster Energy - Subway	+ 4
3	Wilco Kelderman	Monster Energy - Subway	+ 12
4	Marc De Maar	Monster Energy - Subway	+ 1'01
5	Francis De Greef	Monster Energy - Subway	+ 1'03
6	Jack Bobridge	Monster Energy - Subway	+ 1'06
7	Igor Antón	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 1'33
8	Marcel Kittel	Monster Energy - Subway	+ 1'38
9	Theo Bos	Monster Energy - Subway	+ 1'50
10	Joaquím Rodríguez	Katusha Team	+ 2'01

Points

1	Marcel Kittel	Monster Energy - Subway	70
2	Tyler Farrar	Omega Pharma - Quick·Step	58
3	Ben Swift	Sky ProCycling	40
4	Matthew Goss	Lotto - Belisol	38
5	Leonardo Duque	Radio Shack - Nissan	37

KOTM, U25, Teams
No changes.

Today's winner


Word from the DS
Wow, we even managed to win a "normal" mass sprint! Amazing....

Close sprint, he definitely earned this victory! Another great job for the jersey.

Great win for Kittel, and why it's writenn ''último kilometro''? That's portuguese for last kilometre.

This Giro is being a walk in the park for Monster. Great Job!

In Italian too.

Stage 6

The 2nd pancake flat stage in a row brings the riders from Trani to Termoli.



Finish
This is the story of the race: breakaway creates a gap of a few minutes, we don't feel like chasing them as we've already got 3 stage wins and none of the breakaways is a threat for the maglia rosa, nd none of the other teams are willing to chase them. So all we do is setting a pace in the peloton that is high enough to not loose the GC-lead.
So 12 riders sprint for the stage win, and Wesley Sulzberger (Qantas) takes the win. He beats Jonas Aaen Jørgensen (Saxo) and Nikolas Maes (Lotto) in the sprint. Marcel Kittel, who else?, wins the sprint of the peloton for 13th place at 1'10.


Results

1	Wesley Sulzberger	Qantas Airways	3h39'14
2	Jonas Aaen Jørgensen	Saxo Bank SunGard	s.t.
3	Nikolas Maes	Lotto - Belisol	s.t.
4	Enrique Sanz	Movistar Team	s.t.
5	Gianluca Mirenda	Lampre - Generali	s.t.
6	Claudio Corioni	Farnese Vini - Neri Sottoli	s.t.
7	Dennis Van Winden	Rabobank Cycling Team	s.t.
8	Leif Hoste	Katusha Team	s.t.
9	Pablo Urtasun	Nespresso - Algarve	s.t.
10	Mikhail Ignatiev	Katusha Team	s.t.
...
13	Marcel Kittel	Monster Energy - Subway	+ 1'10

Rankings
No changes in the rankings.

Today's winner


Word from the DS
Just a boring stage before tomorrow's mountain top finish.

Another win for Kittel on stage 5 and still its Monster domination

nice race so far! haven't been following for a while but boy some changes have happened! Cadel to Katusha! Basso to Sky! Katusha got a team now don they! Great that you've kept it going this long i think its the longest I've ever seen! Thought you couldve chased that group down but if theres no GC changes then it doesn't really matter! Good to see an Australian get a win!

Kittel's keeping a great shape. I hope he keeps it until the end of the Giro, at least until the last flat race.

Stage 7

The first week of this Giro d'Italia will be closed with the first mountain stage. The riders have arrived in the Abbruzzo, and after some hills, they'll have to face the Passo della Maielletta. The climb is 14 kilometres long with an average gradient of 8% and peaks to 12%. The stage is short (118km) so the time limit will be a real threat to most of the non-climbers.



113km to go
The riders barely have left the neutralisation zone, when the first attack occurs. It's the French climber Pierre Rolland, who already lost 7'13 in the previous 6 stages. He hopes that more rider feel the urge to go on an adventerous trip today and will join him.


98km to go
I don't know if the riders don't like Rolland, or that none of them is willing to attack. But no one tries to join the Omega Pharma-rider, and he he arrives at the summit of the Valico di Rionero Sannitico with a margin of 6 minutes (in 15 kilometres!!!) to the peloton.


79km to go
The peloton for sure isn't interested in chasing Rolland and the gap increases to 10 minutes at the summit of the Colle Roccaraso. We didn't want to chase him before this point, as we want our 2 sprinters to finish safely inside the time limit, so we set a retty low pace in the first 2 climbs.


49km to go
We increase the pace a bit, and as a result, Rolland looses 1 full minute in 30 kilometres... He's still riding in virtual pink.


25km to go
Rolland slowly starts to fade a bit, as the peloton is closing the gap to 6'36 with 25km to go. In the ascend of the Colle Riga (2.9km at 8.5%), the first attack out of the peloton occurs: Francesco Masciarelli (Astana), David Arroyo (Movistar), Simon Spilak (Lampre) and Janez Brajkovic (Radio Shack) try to create a gap to the peloton. But as Brajkovic is pretty dangerous n the GC (16th at 2'43) both our team and Euskaltel don't want him to do so.


14km to go
In the descend towards the foot of the final climb, the 4 attackers get caught by the peloton. The Passo della Maielletta awaits. With a length of 14km at an average gradient of 8% towards an altitude of 1645 metres, it isn't the most difficult climb in this Giro, but the total amount of 3286 height metres in this stage will cause many gaps!


Because of the high pace that is set by Euskaltel and Monster Energy, the margin between leader Rolland and the peloton has decreased to 5'47.


12km to go
After 2 kilometres of climbing, Thiago Machado (Radio Shack) attacks. The Portuguese gets countered by Masciarelli, Arroyo, Siutsou and Bisolti. This occurs 5'08 behind Rolland.


9km to go
That attempt is pretty fruitless, and it lasts 3 more kilometres before the next attack. This time, it is more serious, as Astana's Mikel Nieve decides to give it a go. Robert Gesink recognizes the danger and, being helped by Francis De Greef he increases the pace. As a result, a gap occurs behind them. Still 4'05 behind Rolland.


7km to go
Igor Antón realizes he has missed the cut, and attacks out of the chasing group. But he has to bridge a gap of 40 seconds. Nieve and Gesink ride 3'35 behind Rolland, and with the margin decreasing this rapidly, things start to look bad for the French climber.


4km to go
It takes Antón 3 kilometres to close the gap and with 4km to go to the finish, the situation is as following: Rolland is in the lead, and 1'58 behind follow Gesink, Antón and Nieve. At 3'09 (1'11 behind the first chasing group!) rides a 2nd group with Rujano, Brajkovic, Ulissi, Scarponi, Kelderman, Basso, Evans, De Gendt, Sánchez, Le Mével, Plaza and Danielson.


2km to go
With Nieve already been dropped, Gesink increases the pace with the goal of to crack Antón. And with 2 kilometres to go, the Basque does crack! But because of this, the margin to Rolland becomes smaller, and it's now 1'01. The Frenc rider is struggling to keep the pace high enough to win the stage, but things begin to look really bad!
Nieve has already lost a minute to Gesink and a group with Kelderman, Rujano, Brajkovic, Scarponi and Ulissi is already 2 minutes behind him!


1km to go
In 1 kilometre time, Gesink manages to create a gap of '21 to Antón. And with only being '27 behind Rolland, the stage win is in sight! The group Scarponi-Kelderman follows 2'15 behind Rolland.


Finish
For a brief moment, Robert Gesink wonders if he should give the win to Rolland. But because he's without wins this season, he doesn't want to let this one slip away. So he outsprints the French and wins the 7th stage of the Giro d'Italia!
Igor Antón seems to be the only rider that can follow the Dutch in the climbs and finishes in 3rd at '34. Mikel Nieve crosses th eline in 4th at 1'50 and the group Brajkovic-Kelderman-Rujano-Ulissi-Scarponi at 2'02. Thomas De Gendt finishes in a group with Cadel Evans and Samuel Sánchez at 2'38 and looses his maglia rosa to team mate Gesink.
17 riders finish outside the time limit and have to leave the Giro. Most known names among them are Leif Hoste, Bert Grabsch and Julian Dean.


Results

1	Robert Gesink	Monster Energy - Subway	3h31'03
2	Pierre Rolland	Omega Pharma - Quick·Step	s.t.
3	Igor Antón	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 34
4	Mikel Nieve	Pro Team Astana	+ 1'50
5	Janez Brajkovič	Radio Shack - Nissan	+ 2'02
6	Wilco Kelderman	Monster Energy - Subway	s.t.
7	José Rujano	Androni Giocattoli	s.t.
8	Diego Ulissi	Liquigas - Cannondale	s.t.
9	Michele Scarponi	Nespresso - Algarve	s.t.
10	Ivan Basso	Sky ProCycling	+ 2'38

GC

1	Robert Gesink	Monster Energy - Subway	25h57'27
2	Igor Antón	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 2'19
3	Wilco Kelderman	Monster Energy - Subway	+ 2'34
4	Thomas De Gendt	Monster Energy - Subway	+ 2'58
5	Janez Brajkovič	Radio Shack - Nissan	+ 5'05
6	Mikel Nieve	Pro Team Astana	+ 5'19
7	Tom Danielson	Garmin - Barracuda	+ 5'21
8	Christophe Le Mével	Garmin - Barracuda	s.t.
9	Francis De Greef	Monster Energy - Subway	+ 5'36
10	Diego Ulissi	Liquigas - Cannondale	s.t.

Points

1	Marcel Kittel	Monster Energy - Subway	73
2	Tyler Farrar	Omega Pharma - Quick·Step	64
3	Robert Gesink	Monster Energy - Subway	47
4	Igor Antón	Euskaltel - Euskadi	41
5	Ben Swift	Sky ProCycling	40

KOTM
Rolland gets a consolation price, the KOTM-jersey.

1	Pierre Rolland	Omega Pharma - Quick·Step	22
2	Robert Gesink	Monster Energy - Subway	15
3	Igor Antón	Euskaltel - Euskadi	9
4	Thomas De Gendt	Monster Energy - Subway	8
5	Jérémy Roy	FDJ	5

U25

1	Wilco Kelderman	Monster Energy - Subway	26h00'01
2	Diego Ulissi	Liquigas - Cannondale	+ 3'02
3	Mikel Landa	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 14'55
4	Peter Kennaugh	Sky ProCycling	+ 16'41
5	Carlos Betancourt	Acqua & Sapone	+ 17'05

Teams

1	Monster Energy - Subway	76h02'45
2	Garmin - Barracuda	+ 8'38
3	Pro Team Astana	+ 10'10
4	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 10'12
5	Lampre - Generali	+ 14'42

Today's winner


Word from the DS
Some say that the Giro has already been decided, and that nobody can beat a Robert Gesink in this shape. But there are 14 stages to go, and Igor Antón is only 2 minutes behind. For the others, it will be very difficult to win this Giro.
And about the stage: great racing by the entire team, and an extremely strong Gesink to take the stage win!

Wow, what a stage ! But the Giro its still long way to Milan... Lets hope Gesink will keep Maglia Rosa !

Brilliant win from Gesink

The team is just unstoppable at the moment

Oh... I feel sorry for Rolland

Monster d'Italia! Poor Rolland,,,,

I know, poor Rolland... I would have let him win, but his pace was pretty slow and Gesink had to gain more time to Anton...

Stage 8

After yesterday's tough mountain stage, the riders can take it pretty easy today. The 163 kilometres between Avezzano and Fiumicino are mostly downhill. Finish town Fiumicino is mostly known for the Roma-airport and is near the Tirrenic sea. Mass sprint number 3?



147km to go
Today, we want to do it differently. We want to have a rider in the BOTD, so we don't have to do any chasing work. Jack Bobridge is our man to do it, and he manages to be in the early BOTD of 13 riders, including riders as Francisco Ventoso, former stage winner Wesley Sulzberger and Anthony Roux.
Shortly before the summit of today's only categorized climb, the Valico Sante Marie, the 13 get caught by the peloton.


63km to go
But some of the 13 breakaways (Roux, Sulzberger and William Clarke (Sony Ericsson) manage to attack in the descend and form the next breakaway. Among them is our Aussie Bobridge. They get joined by Victor Reynès (Lotto), Gianluca Mirenda (Lampre), Stef Clement (Rabobank), Matteo Pelucchi (Nespresso) and Óscar Freire (Movistar). The 8 get the blessing from the peloton and create a maximum margin of 7'15. With 63km remaining the gap is still 5'05.


21km to go
The BOTD has arrived at the Tirrenic coast line. With the margin having decreases to 1'29 and being the worst sprinter of the 8, Jack Bobridge knows that there is only 1 option to win this stage: attack!


5km to go
Nobody of the 7 counters, and the Aussie quickly builds a ga of 1 minute. With 5 kilometres to go, ha has a margin of 1 minute to the 7, and 1'15 to the peloton. But the speed in the peloton has increased enourmosly, thanks to the domestiques of Tyler Farrar (Omega Pharma) and Ben Swift (Team Sky), and with Bobridge fighting against cramps, the margin is melting as snow for the sun.


1km to go
As we realize that Bobridge won't hold it untill the finish, we quickly set up our already famous train. Entering the last kilometre, when Theo Bos is about to launch Marcel Kittel, they are only 10 seconds behind the completely stalling Aussie.


Finish
And that's win number 3 for Marcel Kittel! Being absolutely dominant in this sprint, the German easily takes another sprint win, and again, he can thank Bos for a perfect lead out!
The battle for the 2nd place is more exciting, as Matthew Goss beats Andrea Guardini and Fabio Sabatinin in a photo finish. With Tyler Farrar only finishing in 5th, he looses valuable points against Kittel in the race for the maglia rosso. And Jack Bobridge? The poor Aussie finishes in 14th place.


Results

1	Marcel Kittel	Monster Energy - Subway	3h50'19
2	Matthew Goss	Lotto - Belisol	s.t.
3	Andrea Guardini	Farnese Vini - Neri Sottoli	s.t.
4	Fabio Sabatini	Acqua & Sapone	s.t.
5	Tyler Farrar	Omega Pharma - Quick·Step	s.t.
6	Denis Galimzyanov	Katusha Team	s.t.
7	Mark Renshaw	Rabobank Cycling Team	s.t.
8	Ben Swift	Sky ProCycling	s.t.
9	William Bonnet	FDJ	s.t.
10	Theo Bos	Monster Energy - Subway	s.t.

GC, KOTM, U25, Teams
No changes.

Points

1	Marcel Kittel	Monster Energy - Subway	98
2	Tyler Farrar	Omega Pharma - Quick·Step	76
3	Matthew Goss	Lotto - Belisol	59
4	Ben Swift	Sky ProCycling	48
5	Robert Gesink	Monster Energy - Subway	47

Today's winner


Word from the DS
Poor Jack.... Some Monster-haters say that we didn't want him to win, as we took the lead of the peloton with 2.5km to go. But knowing that he was completely empty an he got assed with 600m to go, he would have lost it anyhow, even if we didn't took the lead. That's why. And after watching the replay of the last few kilometres, Jack completely agrees and says that we have done the right thing!