GIRO DONNE LIVE - DEAD CERT SPRINT FINISH OR A BIG DAY FOR THE BREAKAWAY?

Less than a wheel separates her from Charlotte Kool (Team DSM). Kool looked to lead around the last left turn at 200m to go, and went very wide but that meant Balsamo had the inside line. The World Champion was first to straighten up and back to top speed in the charge for the line. The pair were shoulder to shoulder but experience showed. Marianne Vos was never really in the race, but still managed to take 3rd place.

Emma Norsgaard (Movistar) crosses the line clutching her collarbone, clearly in some distress.

Lots of teams battlilng for the head of the race, elbows how as we approach the final bend. The washing machine is spinning. No-one wants to be caught out now. Jumbo Visma force their way through.

5KM TO GO - BARIANI ABOUT TO BE CAUGHT

The Top Girls' top girl has made a fab fist of it and she's done well to hold them off this long, and be the last one standing. Jumbo Visma and Team Liv roll to the front, and we're all set up for a bunch sprint.

It's been a good day out for the four leftovers from the break, but it was never likely to go their way. There's only Bariani left out there now, with a lead that's rapidly reduced to less than 30 seconds. She will get caught, but the sprint teams will have wanted to have finished the job before now, so they could focus on getting organised for the bunch sprint and the fiddly run-in to the finish.

Not just the four riders behind her, but the bunch as well. The gap to the peloton, which had been falling at a precipitous rate, now seems to have stablised at just over a minute. It's not as if they've eased off, either. Could Bariani trick them into gifting her the stage win?

The Top Girls Fassa Bortolo rider has had enough of the stalling of her colleagues, who had all but given up the ghost at that point. Bariani lays herself off the line before charging through and soon has a gap of several hundred metres. Will that change the equation? Probably not. It should ensure she's the last woman standing, though.

The quintet's slim chance of staying away isn't fattening any. They seem to be faltering, with a few skipping turns. while the bunch have only just woken up. Who's it going to be from the bunch, then? Both Elisa Balsamo (Trek-Segafredo) and Marianne Vos (Jumbo Visma) could double up today, and they would be they the five star favourites for the stage. Might someone like Charlotte Kool (Team DSM) steal it from under their noses? Her team-mates are certainly doing their bit on the front of the peloton, so her legs must be lively.

For the stage win? Probably quite a few of these riders. Bike racing aside, if you're a fan of Italian cuisine, the region the Giro Donne is in today, Emilia-Romagna, is where most of your favourite foods probably come from. Prosciutto, pancetta and mortadella; Parmigiano Reggiano, Grana padano cheeses. If you're a pasta or a polenta person, the best dishes are from this region. Balsamic vinegar is made only in the Emilian cities of Modena and Reggio Emilia.

Which is where the stage finishes. Alberto Dainese (Team DSM) was the last rider to win there, taking a surprise sprint victory on a similarly shaped Stage 11 of this year's men's Giro d'Italia.

The rule of thumb - regarded by some, rejected by others - is that to stay away the break needs a minute of lead for every ten km of road remaining. Although they did make it up to as high as five minutes up the road, the peloton have injected a bit of impetus into the chase, and it's now just beneath the number you'd say favoured the break. Unfortunately for these riders out front, there are a lot of big teams with an interest in bringing it back - none more than Jumbo Visma and Trek-Segafredo, whose GC hopes took a mighty battering yesterday. Leah Thomas of Trek leads the peloton, which is all strung out and going at a fair old trot.

Not the race for the stage but for the maglia rosa. Certainly the top three riders have a serious stranglehold on the podium place, with more than four minutes over the rest. Annemiek van Vleuten can't be complacent, however, as 25 seconds is certainly not an insurmoutable advantage. The best thing about it, from AVV's point of view, is that she now only has two riders to be concerned about going into the mountains.

Here the top five going into today's stage.

1. Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) 8:46:33s
2. Mavi Garcia (UAE Team ADQ) +0:25s
3. Marta Cavalli +0:57s
4. Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek Segafredo) +5:00s
5. Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (FDJ Nouvelle Aquitaine) +5:13s

Let's just say if you missed it, you missed out. I don't think anyone saw that coming.

Mavi Garcia made a good fight of the finish, but there's no stopping Van Vleuten, in this race, when she's as well prepared as she evidently is.

Our breakaway is made up of a trio of Italians, a Brit and an Austrian rider (with a very Italian sounding name.)

Hannah Barnes (Uno-X Pro Cycling Team)
Giorgia Bariani (Top Girls Fassa Bortolo)
Matilde Vitillo (Bepink)
Anastasia Carbonari (Valcar - Travel & Service)
Iris Monticolo (Top Girls Fassa Bortolo)

Best-placed in the general classification is Matilde Vitillo, in 36th place at 12:19 behind, so no threat whatsoever to the top ten, let alone the maglia rosa. Annemiek van Vleuten would be perfectly happy to see this go the distance. It won't though.

Welcome to live coverage of Stage 5 of the Giro Donne. After yesterday's unexpected ripping up of the race on the roads around Cesena, today's events ought to be at least a little more predictable.

It's 126km of pan-flat parcours through the magnifico Emilia-Romagna region. Five riders are up the road, and they've got 3 minutes on the bunch.