Giro d'Italia

Real life: Joaquim Rodríguez took the win and the GC lead ahead of Huzarski and Visconti.

8 riders want to get this rainy day over with as fast as possible. They are Davis, Boom, De Kort, Szmyd, Hoogerland, Verdugo, Charteau and Tony Martin.

100 km to go. The break has a gap of 9 minutes with Astana and Katusha leading the chase.

Verdugo takes the only KOM ahead of Boom and Martin, but it has no bearing on the jersey, which remains solidly on the shoulders of Quintana. 45 km to go and the break has 4’30’’ to the peloton. Could be close…

20 km left. Still 3’33’’ between the break and the peloton.

10 km to go. Charteau and De Kort struggling to get away from the rest of the break. The peloton is still more than three minutes behind so the break will most likely take the stage.

3 km to go for the break and the ascent of the final hill has begun. Martin doing most of the work quickly disposing of De Kort and Charteau.

6 riders left to sprint for the win but Davis is only just hanging on.

In the peloton the favourites have started moving. Once again Nibali is taking the initiative.

Szmyd takes it in the closest sprint of the race this far.

Nibali once again manage to take a few seconds on his main competitors.
Andy Schleck, Gesink, Rodríguez and Froome will be beating themselves about their stupid time losses today.

Giro d'Italia

Real life: Roberto Ferrari won a sprint ahead of Chicchi and Vaitkus.

After a lot of struggling 13 riders are allowed in the break on this rainy day. Most prominently Ventoso, Van Hummel, Monfort, Moser and Mondory.

After having had a gap of more than 11 minutes the break start losing terrain with 110 km to go.

None of the breakers have the mountain jersey within reach, but still Monfort put in a strong effort to win the first KOM of the day.

Zabriskie gets the second KOM without contention as the peloton is catching up with the break. Time to see which sprinters have survived the hills and the rain best.

At least that’s what everyone thought until Cancellara made the small jump from the peloton to the break and gave it a bit of fresh energy. 9,4 km to go and a minute between the break and the peloton.

5 km. Monfort, Zabriskie, Moser and Cancellara have 23 seconds to the peloton.

The peloton is losing momentum and with 3,5 km left the gap have grown to 45 seconds. None of the sprinters have more than a single helper and they are not helping each other.
Will the sprinters allow this steal?

Monfort opens the sprint early. No slow tactics helping the sprinters here.

Seeing no proper train Luis León Sánchez attacks from the peloton with just over 3 km to go. The speed ought to be too high for that at this moment!

1,5 km mark. Zabriskie takes over in front. 48 seconds to Sánchez and a further 12 seconds to the sprinters. This one is in the bag for the break.

Into the last km Cancellara comes blazing from behind. After all he has the most energy since he hasn’t been out all day.

Meanwhile Cavendish is the only sprinter still with some help.

Spartacus steals the stage while Cavendish wins the pelotons sprint.

A large group of riders crash just before the line. Fortunately they can all get back on their bikes and finish the race, and none of the favourites lose time. Even Schleck and Gesink get free of the crash!

Giro d'Italia

Real life: This stage was won by Lars Ytting Bak, who went solo from a break. Casar and Amador followed 11 seconds later.

Five riders quickly get a good lead today. Marczynski wins the first KOM ahead of Sarmiento, Peter Velits, Charteu and De Kort.

100 km to go and the break has a gap of 10 minutes. Saxo – Tinkoff, Katusha and Astana seem to be up to something and over the first hill the peloton breaks in half. The biggest GC-hope caught behind is Tony Martin.

Marczynski takes the second KOM as well ahead of Velits and Charteau.
With 65 km to go the break has 5’38’’ to the 85-rider peloton.

On the descent Wiggins fall, but immediately has 6 helpers pulling his group to get him back in the peloton. It takes them about 15 km, but they succeed.

Same procedure as usual on the third categorized climb. The gap has now been reduced to just over three minutes with 35 km left.
The third climb ended up to be more than De Kort could handle…

By now it can hardly come as a surprise to see Nibali attacking on the final climb. Rodríguez is with him while Sky Wiggins lead the chase from the peloton.

On the final KOM Velits finally get the upper hand over the Pole. In the peloton there’s a lot of attacking from the GC favourites.

With 8 km to go Velits and Marczynski has 1’20’’ to a group of Evans, Contador, Nibali, Rodríguez, Andy Schleck and Van den Broeck, who has 40 seconds on the peloton.
With 6 km to go Sky Wiggins have neutralized the attack and we’re back to Status Quo regarding the GC battle.

In a two-rider sprint it’s usually the one who waits the longest that ends up with the win. Today Velits opens the sprint…

…and Polish victory! The second of the race!!

De Gendt takes the pelotons sprint ahead of Froome.

15 riders missed the time limit. Most prominently Kittel, Guardini, Henderson, Renshaw and Bos.