As ever the favourites will be Di Luca, Cunego, Piepoli and Simoni. Although 5th and 6th Overall, Schleck and Vila may hope to do well following a strong showing yesterday.
Theres a good chance that the KoM Jersey may change hands unless Piepoli fights for it as there are plenty of points on offer today.
Expect a break to clear early on, and perhps, if they can climb well, make it to the first KoM points.
Next Update: On top of the first climb (The one that does not give any points)
Andy Engels attacked just before the intermediate sprint, thwarting the sprinter's hopes as he was countered by Mathieu Sprick, Chris Anker Sorenson and Bjorn Schroder. They are all solo and have not joined up yet.
The peleton are 5 minutes behind Engels and have already dropped a few riders, including Tomas Vaitkus, who punctured at preciseley the wrong moment and has no hope of seeing the rest of his team again until he meets up with them at their hotel - where Tomas will hope to here that Tom Danielson has moved into the top 10.
Engels and Sprick now lead by over 11 minutes over the top of the climb. 5 minutes behind them are Sorenson and Schroder - who have been joined from Bruseghin, who was one of 7 riders to attack from the peleton. They are pursued by Caucchioli, Perez Cuapio, Rubiera and Guerini. While Sandy Casar and Luis Leon Sanchez lie in between them and the peleton of 68, and even Sanchez has a 4 minute lead over it.
The peleton is being led by Astana and Saunier Duval.
Before getting to the top, the attackers from the peleton caught and dropped Sorenson and Schroder, with Rubiera and Perez Cuapio struggling to hang on to Bruseghin, Caucchioli and Guerini.
When the peleton crosses the summit, they weredown to 38. The highest place rider to be dropepd was 28th Overall and CSC's leader: Gustov.
Edited by SportingNonsense on 30-07-2007 17:30
Bruseghin, Guerini, Caucchioli have caught and passed Engels/Sprick on the climb and take the summit first. Sprick, Perez Cuapio and Rubiera are 1'30 behind the lead trio, with Engels 30 seconds further back.
Sandy Casar is 3'30 behind the lead trio, while Sanchez Gil is 4'30 behind. The peleton are led over by Parra and nobody is really leading the chase. They are 5'20 behind the lead trio.
Di Luca leads the attacks up the next climb, and joined with Cunego, they catch Perez Cuapio and Rubiera. Di Luca then gets angry with Cunego for not working - even though Di Luca isnt working himself. They are pursued by a solo Simoni, who would have been caught by Piepoli and Schleck if Schleck had not taken a long slow turn that allowed Simoni to get away. Piepoli has now dropped Schleck, but the damage has been done.
Up front Bruseghin and Guerini still lead, and have dropped Caucchioli. They cross the summit, with the leaders chasing them down.
Caucchioli crosses 3rd, a minute down. 25 seconds later, Cunego crosses in 4th. Cunego now has a 20 second gap to Di Luca, who himself has a 20 second gap to Simoni and Perez Cuapio. Due to Schleck, Piepoli is now 50 seconds behind Simoin, in 7th. Rubiera is 50 seconds down on Piepoli and Schleck is 20 seconds behind Rubiera, and 2'30 ahead of a group of 9: Cardenas, Vila, Mercykx, Nibali, Dessel, Parra, Plaza, Mazzanti and Danielson.
In the descent Cunego caught Caucchioli but could not extend his lead over Di Luca. The descent of the day award goes to Piepoli, who managed to cut a 50 second gap and catch Simoni and Perez Cuapio.
Piepoli and Simoni, the 2 former teammates, attack and drop Perez Cuapio and then catch Di Luca, who was caught up behind Caucchioli. Cunego is looking good now and is closing in on Bruseghin and Guerini.
Cunego catches the lead 2 and Bruseghin begins to struggle, unable to help his teammate. Meanwhile Simoni attacks and gets a little gap to Di Luca and Piepoli. Di Luca is unable to close the gap, so Piepoli takes over. Caucchioli has done now and Perez Cuapio is also struggling and is caught by Andy Schleck.
Cunego crosses first. Guerini and Simoni are 40 seconds behind. Bruseghin is 50 seconds behind and Di Luca/Piepoli are 1'20 behind. Unfortuanately for Piepoli, there is no descent, only a short flat area before things go up one last time.
Cunego now leads Simoni by a minute and when Piepoli/Di Luca get close to Simoni, Guerini slows them down.
Di Luca then gets a slight gap on Piepoli, Guerini yet again, despite being old, useless and tired, goes forward and slows Piepoli down.
No one is able to attack on the incredibly tough Tre Cime di Lavaredo, which averages 13% for most of the way.
Cunego celebrates his first stage victory of the Giro and he will be in the Maglia Rosa tonight.
Simoni 2nd, Di Luca 3rd, Piepoli, Guerini, Bruseghin, Schleck.
There is a tight sprint for 8th, with Cardenas succedding. Perez Cuapio cracked at the wrong moment and Caucchioli did not have enough pace left in his legs.
