Tough stage! There are currently 4 riders racing away in the Giro: Di Luca, Cunego, Piepoli and Simoni. Perhaps the likes of Schleck, Mazzanti, Vila, Plaza, or Perez Cuapio will look to shock the top 4 and win a stage? Piepoli is guaranteed to keep the KoM jersey, but may look to extend his lead on the day's big climb.
At the peleton reach the foot of the climb, the break has a 10 minute lead. Their best climber is FDJ's Mourey - 71 MO 65th Overall, while the best played is Fedrigo - 50th Overall.
Astana, Lampre and Saunier Duval set a tough pace, and with 21km to the summit they have caught Swedish rider Wilert, from the breakaway. Wilert is 155th Overall (Out of 156) and just 12 minutes ahead of the lanterne rouge, Aussie Jai Crawford.
Next to be caught, 17km from the summit is Iranian Saedi Tanha. As he is caught, Sanchez Gil and Tonti attack! They are joined by Cataldo and Rubiera.
Tonti, Cataldo and Rubiera are caught with 14km to go and SouthAustralia's Johnny Walker is also caught. Sanchez Gil is looking good however, while his teammate Gutierrez Palacios (35th), is the highest placed rider to have been dropped so far. He is in a group of 12 chasing the 46 strong peleton. T-Mobile pair Ardila and Kirchen are the next to be dropped, with 7km still to go on the climb.
Xavier Florencio is dropped and with 1.7km to the summit, Simon Gerrans is caught. Sanchez Gil, Bernucci, Mourey and Fedrigo are still up front, and Fedrigo has just taken the 20 KoM points. Mourey goes over 2nd and Caucchioli leads the attacks from the peleton to take 3rd. Casar crosses 4th, Perez Cuapio 5th and Axel Mercykx 6th.
At the end of the descent, Fedrigo has a 3 minute lead over Mourey and Caucchioli, with the 45 man peleton 1'10 behind them.
In the flat before the next climb, Caucchioli is hard at work and Fedrigo now only leads them by 2 minutes, and Caucchioli/Mourey now lead the peleton by 2 minutes. It seems Caucchioli is trying to emulate a victory the way that Nibali and Piepoli won - and perhaps move into the top 10 in doing so (He is currently 15th).
As Mourey was about to be caught, and Caucchioli is about to catch Fedrigo, the attacks are launched by Gilberto Simoni.
Chaos ensued and heres what it looks like at the top of the climb:
Simoni has a thin lead over Cunego, who is followed by Caucchioli, Piepoli, Di Luca, Schleck, Vila and Mazzanti.
Its going to be hard work for Simoni as he chasedc down the mountain by Cunego, Piepoli, Schleck, Vila and Di Luca. Caucchioli and Mazzanti lie inbetween a chasing group of 19.
Simoni is caught though and the race wil lsurely be decided on the small hill inbetween the riders and the finish.
Schleck drags himself back but Di Luca is always going to be the favourite for the win with a better hill stat and a better sprint stat.
So that was of little surprise.
