Giro d'Italia 2020 Stage 18 - As it happened
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Updated 22/10/2020 at 14:53 GMT
Giro d'Italia 2020 - A stage for the ages saw Jai Hindley beat Tao Geoghegan Hart for the win as Wilco Kelderman ended Joao Almeida's 15-day reign in pink after the Giro was blown apart on the Passo dello Stelvio.
Tao Geoghegan Hart of The United Kingdom and Team INEOS Grenadiers
Image credit: Getty Images
LIVE UPDATES FROM STAGE 18
The moment Jai beat Tao for the win...
Hindley now leads the white jersey classification outright and trails teammate Kelderman by just 12 seconds in the battle for pink.
New top 10: Just 15 seconds separate top three
Boy, are we in for an exciting final weekend's racing in this 103rd edition of the Giro d'Italia.
Stage 18 result
Confirmation of today's top 10 after a stage for the ages...
Ciao (for now), Joao!
Bravo, Joao Almeida, who battles home 4'50" down alongside Vincenzo Nibali to concede the pink jersey after 15 days leading his maiden Grand Tour.
Wilco Kelderman in pink!
The Dutchman digs deep right to the end and crosses the line 2'18" down on his teammate Hindley, who he will lead by a slender margin going into tomorrow's stage. What a day for Team Sunweb, who managed to handle a difficult situation really well to turn things round and come out with the advantage over Ineos Grenadiers.
Bilbao third, Fuglsang fourth
And we wait for Wilco Kelderman to see if it's him or teammate Hindley in pink tonight...
Victory for Jai Hindley!
Geoghegan Hart has the inside on the final bend and opens up the sprint, but the Australian comes through on the outside to take a maiden Grand Tour stage win. Now we wait to see who's in pink tonight...
Final kilometre
Hindley still sticks in Geoghegan Hart's wheel. You'd expect him to be fresher and to take the win, but you never know...
2km to go: Pendulum swings again
Geoghegan drives the pace again as they approach the summit - and it's the British rider who takes the points over the top before entering the tunnel. On the other side, the Lakes of Cancano. The gap back to Bilbao is 43 seconds and to Kelderman now almost two minutes. The maglia rosa is not yet impossible for Ineos, especially with the bonus seconds factored in...
5km to go: Hairpin heaven
Fascinating stuff as the gaps come down. Bilbao is only 45 seconds behind now with Kelderman still at 1'35". The mind games have started between Geoghegan Hart and Hindley - the latter won't work because he has Kelderman behind, whereas for the former, he's probably now thinking more about a second stage win rather than the pink jersey. They will both know that there's another stage in the mountains on Saturday, plus the time trial.
6km to go: Bilbao drops Fuglsang
The Spaniard has ridden a super strong Giro considering he rode the Tour earlier this summer/autumn. He's just gone clear of Fuglsang and trails the two leaders by only one minute. Kelderman, meanwhile, is only 30 seconds back, so he's still on course for the pink jersey. Behind, Nibali has been caught by the Almeida group. They trail the leaders by 4'30". There's going to be a huge mix-up in the top 10 tonight.
8km to go: Cat.1 Torri di Fraele
We're onto the final climb, which is 8.7km long at 6.8%. Kelderman has rallied a little and hasn't let Fuglsang and Bilbao out of his sight. Dennis was caught and passed by the duo. As things stand, Kelderman is still the virtual maglia rosa. He's 1'40" down and so still has another minute to play with.
Here's our man Matt Stephens with some more info on this final climb following his recce this morning...
10km to go: Dennis is done
As the road ramps up ahead of the final climb, Dennis peels off, his stupendous work for the day done. Behind, Kelderman has completely popped. The Dutchman is caught and passed by Fuglsang and Bilbao - and the man in virtual pink may never don the pink jersey at all.
Shades of the 2018 Giro here with Almeida in the Yates role and Kelderman in Dumoulin's shoes and Geoghegan Hart playing the Froome role. But can Hindley have his say and upset the Ineos applecart, give Sunweb something to shout about at the end of the day after all?
11km to go: Geoghegan Hart wins sprint
Rohan Dennis leads his teammate out to win the intermediate sprint - and those three bonus seconds (to Hindley's one) put the British rider ahead of the Australian on GC in the virtual standings. He was one second heind Hindley this morning, and now he's two ahead.
Meanwhile, the maglia rosa group - Almeida, Masnada, Konrad, Majka, Pernsteiner and Novac - is 4'10" down. Many Portuguese fans are very unhappy with Fausto Masnada, who they claim did not protect their man in pink enough. For his part, the Italian seemed rather angry with his teammate on the last climb. Tensions clearly rising in the Quick-Step camp as their race falls apart.
15km to go: Gap grows - Wilco's world of pain
Uh oh, Kelderman looks to be in a bit of trouble... He's struggling to get in a rhythm on this grind towards the second sprint and final climb. This is where Dennis will come into his own again - pacing his man to the foot of the climb. The Dutchman's deficit grows to one minute...
20km to go: Kelderman still virtual pink
The Dutchman still trails the leaders by 42 seconds but that gives him a virtual GC lead of two minutes. It's going to come down to the final climb - will he be cold after this descent and his absence of jacket? And how will he tackle the climb on his own and without any others to help? It's going to be fascinating to see what happens between here and the new finish today at Laghi di Cancano.
25km to go: Time gaps
No huge change for Kelderman who stays within 41 seconds of the front trio as they continue this fast descent down towards Bormio. They've passed all the big hairpins and exited the snowline now. It's more a question of tunnels and long straights. The Bilbao-Fuglsang duo is 1'30" down with Nibali another minute back and the Almeida group 3'20" down.
34km to go: Kelderman unzipped, too
The Dutchman has also not managed to zip up his jacket. And instead of doing so, he slows and pulls it off before tossing it to the side of the road. He may regret that - it's a long descent and extremely cold. Hindley, meanwhile, is still with the Ineos duo out ahead - despite that flapping jacket.
38km to go: Dennis takes Cima Coppi
Tao Geoghegan Hart does the right thing and let's teammate Rohan Dennis cross the summi tof the Stelvio in pole position to pick up the Cima Coppi. What a ride that was from the Australian, who thoroughly deserves that prize. Now, can they stay out - and stay up - on this technical descent through the snow and tunnels and twists and turns?
Kelderman comes over 47 seconds down before Bilbao and Fuglsang crest the top about 1'40" down. Hindley, I hasten to add, failed to zip up his jacket and so he's having a bit of a shocker, in all fairness. It won't keep him warm like that - and the flapping around may slow him down, too.
39km to go: Jacket it, Jai!
The young Australian struggles for around 500m to put on his jacket - almost hitting the deck at one point when getting his arm stuck and veering towards the wall. He eventually manages to get it on - but that will put him out of the frame for the Cima Coppi I'd think...
40km to go: Summit approaching
Fuglsang and Bilbao ride together 1'40" down on the three leaders, who are preparing themselves for the descent - picking up jackets for the wind chill on the descent. Kelderman is 45" down so he may be caught by the others, or he may stay in touch and take the pink jersey today. He has over 2'30" on his teammate Hindley and Geoghegan Hart on GC - but we still have another climb today, and a highly technical descent.
42km to go: Two minutes for Almeida
The maglia rosa is now 2'15" behind these three leaders, who have 33" on Kelderman. The Nibali-Fuglsang-Bilbao-Novac group is 1'08" down. And now Nibali has popped! He speaks into his radio as the elastic snaps. Meanwhile, Almeida opens a gap on Pernsteiner, Majka, Konrad and Masnada, but it's quickly closed. What a brilliant battle this is turning out to be - and we're still a few kilometres from the snowy summit.
Not over for Kelderman... yet
The Dutchman continues to lose time on the three leaders even though he's passed O'Connor. But he shouldn't get too worked up. He's still the virtual maglia rosa on the road and can recoup a bit of time on the descent. The big question for Sunweb now, though, is whether they go all in for Hindley, or recall him to help the Dutchman on the final climb? They could still end up in second and third on GC tonight - but with Geoghegan Hart in pink!
44km to go: O'Connor caught
The Australian is caught and passed by this fearsome trio. It's 20 seconds back to Keldermann and 1'45" back to the maglia rosa, who is grimacing as he rides in a group with his teammate Masnada and Majka, as well as Konrad and Pernsteiner. The likes of Bilbao, Fuglsang and Nibali are somewhere in between.
45.5km to go: Kelderman dropped
For the second time, Wilco Kelderman has been dropped by this select group. He fought back on the first time but now he's in crisis as his teammate Hindley rides on with the Ineos duo of Dennis and Geoghegan Hart. What drama on the Stelvio!
47km to go: Nibali and Fuglsang pop!
The veterans have also been distanced now as Rohan Dennis takes it up for Ineos teammate Geoghegan Hart. The Sunweb duo of Kelderman and Hindley are also there in this select quartet which has ridden clear of all the other GC favourites.
48km to go: Almeida cracks!
Now he's gone - the point of no return, surely. Also dropped are Majka and Bilbao.
49km to go: Almeida battles back
Maybe it was just a wobble because the Portuguese has managed to fight back. But he's going to face some serious pressure now - and tellingly, Quick-Step didn't send Fausto Masnada back there. The tempo from Sunweb is infernal as all the break are swept up except O'Connor and Pedrero.
50km to go: Almeida and Pozzovivo dropped!
With the indefatigable O'Connor pushing on at the head of the race, the Australian's NTT teammate Domenico Pozzovivo has cracked behind! He's going to ship a load of time today...
Oh, and now Almeida is drifting back. The pink jersey is in trouble!
51km to go: Seven chasers
O'Connor has 55 seconds now on a chase group of Pedrero, Samitier, Ganna, Swift, Holmes, Dombrowski and Navarro. The others have been dropped or caught by the pack, which is 1'45" down and being driven by five riders from Sunweb.
55km to go: O'Connor attacks!
The first move from the break comes from yesterday's winner, Ben O'Connor, who kicks clear of his 14 fellow escapees. Behind, Haga peels off and that sees other Sunweb big-hitters move up alongside Ineos on the front. Will Almeida survive this relentless pace over the next hour?
Some of the break have been caught, in fact. Tonelli and that man De Gendt...
56km to go: Haga sets the pace
It's Chad Haga, the American, who isn't oversimplifying anything by setting the tempo on the front of the pack now for Sunweb, with the Ineos train tucked in behind. Ineos have two riders up the road in Ganna and Swift, but it looks like they won't be out for much longer: the gap is just 1'35" now. If they're reeled in too quickly then their help for Geoghegan Hart will be somewhat limited.
58km to go: Sunweb and Ineos set tempo
Sunweb and Ineos have set the tempo going onto the climb and on the first slopes. Nico Denz the German is the latest to peel off for Sunweb, with the advantage of the breakaway down to 2'20". It looks like it's not going to be a stage for the breakaway. Bora-Hansgrohe are also right in the mix for their man Rafal Majka while, for now, Quick-Step take a back seat.
60km to go: Cat.1 Passo dello Stelvio
The leaders are now onto the highest climb of this year's race - the Cat.1 Passo Stelvio (24.8km at 7.4%). It's show time...
62km to go: De Gendt wins sprint
The insatiable Thomas De Gendt kicks clear to win the intermediate sprint at Prato - he wants everything today. That puts him ahead of Simon Pellaud in the breakaway classification. Now he can focus on the Stelvio, which is coming right up.
65km to go: Approaching Prato
The break is closing in on Prato where we have the intermediate sprint. The gap is down to 3'15" so it's highly unlikely than one of these 10 riders will win the stage today - but one of them could still take the Cima Coppi over the top of the Stelvio. It all depends on how the GC riders attack this climb.
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The peloton rides along during Stage 18 of the Giro d'Italia 2020
Image credit: Getty Images
72km to go: Five former stage winners
This lead group has five former Giro stage winners: De Gendt, Cataldo, Guerreiro, Ganna and O'Connor. The last three all got their wins in this year's race - in O'Connor's case, yesterday. That man Ganna has three wins to his name in his debut Giro - although you expect that he and Swift are in the move today to help Geoghegan Hart later on.
82km to go: De Gendt again?
Thomas De Gendt memorably won on the Stelvio in the penultimate stage of the 2012 Giro d'Italia, moving up onto the podium one day later in the final time trial. That day, the climb was being ridden from the western ascent from Bormio; eight years on, we're approaching it from the north-east side. Can De Gendt double up on the Cima Coppi today? Of course, the stage doesn't finish after this next climb - there will still be another ascent to chalk off - but the Belgian spoke before today's stage of his desire to go over in pole position...
90km to go: Feed zone for the peloton
The pace has eased again as the riders taken on musettes and fill up the tank ahead of this key climb which is looming. Ineos, Quick-Step and Sunweb all have riders on the front of the pack, which trails the break by 3'55" now. Time for another picture of the Stelvio? Here you go...
98km to go: Another stop for Almeida
The maglia rosa has pulled to the side of the road again for the second time in the last 10km. It's not clear what the issue is - another call of nature after too much coffee this morning, perhaps, or an issue with his radio, or maybe a clothing or mechanical issue? It's worth keeping an eye on. We're not used to see him look so nervous, and the 22-year-old has never raced over such a long and high climb as the Stelvio.
105km to go: Almeida back
Looking back at that strange moment earlier, the race leader used it as a chance to drop back for a call of nature. Perhaps the Nibali acceleration was one of the Shark's notorious pieces of mind games? In any case, the Portuguese leader is now back in the main pack. The gap for the leaders is up to 3'15" and Sunweb have returned to the front.
108km to go: Sunweb drop back
Sunweb have suddenly disappeared from the front which resulted in a moment of indecision and hesitation on the front. Vincenzo Nibali edged ahead and looked to have a small dig, while James Knox of Quick-Step gesticulated towards the shrinking Sunweb presence before rallying his teammates to take up position. The gap for the leaders stretches out to 2'30" as a result of the easing of pace behind. We're still 44km from the summit of the climb, with the climb proper starting in 20km.
110km to go: Who's in the break?
A reminder of the 15 riders in the break: Fabio Felline (Astana), Alessandro Tonelli (Bardiani-CSF), Stephane Rossetto (Cofidis), Ruben Guerreiro (EF Pro Cycling), Daniel Navarro (Israel Start-Up Nation), Thomas De Gendt and Matthew Holmes (both Lotto Soudal), Dario Cataldo, Antonio Pedrero and Sergio Samitier (all Movistar), Louis Meintjes and Ben O'Connor (both NTT Pro Cycling), Filippo Ganna and Ben Swift (both Ineos Grenadiers), and Joe Dombrowski (UAE-Team Emirates).
The gap has come down to 2'10" with Sunweb leading the chase and setting the tempo on this long false flat approach to the Stelvio...
115km to go: Boaro has withdrawn
We're hearing from the commentary team that Manuele Boaro has pulled out of the race but there's no confirmation of that yet on Astana's website or Twitter page. The man himself did tweet about the Stelvio this morning and it's fair to say he didn't seem to excited about the prospect of tackling it...
120km to go: Team Sunweb set the tempo
It's the Sunweb team of Kelderman and Hindley who are setting the pace in the main pack with a Deceuninck Quick-Step rider infiltrating their train and riding in second wheel. The gap for the 15 leaders is up to 2'15".
Which one of these nine riders will win the Giro?
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Pink jersey Joao Almeida (Deceuninck Quick-Step) surrounded by his GC rivals during Stage 17 of the Giro d'Italia 2020
Image credit: Getty Images
Stelvio or bust for the GC favourites
With the Agnello and Izoard removed from Saturday's Stage 20, today's ascent of the Stelvio will be the acid test for Joao Almeida and his Quick-Step team. Anyone who wants to end up in pink in Milan had better take it from the Portuguese's shoulders today, or risk not taking it at all...
130km to go: Next climb - the Stelvio
De Gendt and Guerreiro are reeled in by the other escapees on the descent and the 15 riders have 1'35" on the maglia rosa group. I think it's time for another picture of the Stelvio. This one, a rare shot from above...
140km to go: De Gendt takes KOM points
Oh, hello! The Belgian kicks clear to throw a cat among EF's pigeons. And it's De Gendt who takes the maximum 40pts over the top with Guerreiro having to settle for second place and 18pts. So, that means the Portuguese moves up to 234pts with De Gendt now on 122pts. It's a huge long shot that the Belgian can overturn Guerreiro's KOM lead but he'll give it a go.
145km to go: Composition of the group
This 15-man break is an interesting move and could play a role in the fight for pink behind. While Joao Almeida and his Sunweb rivals Wilco Kelderman and Jai Hindley have no teammates involved, Geoghegan Hart has two Ineos teammates there in Ganna and Swift, while Domenico Pozzovivo has two NTT teammates in O'Connor and Meintjes, and Jakob Fuglsang one in Astana teammate Felline.
Movistar also have three riders in the mix - Cataldo, Pedrero and Samitier - as they bid to fare better than they did yesterday, when they had four in the day's break, but only finished with one rider in the top 10 - a seventh for Davide Villella. They did a bit better over in Spain with Marc Soler winning Stage 2 of the Vuelta after a Movistar masterclass - the team's first win since early February.
148km to go: Guerreiro bridges over
The leading group has grown to 15 with the arrival of Ruben Guerreiro and a handful of others. The Portuguese closed the gap with Matthew Holmes (Lotto Soudal), Antonio Pedrero and Sergio Samitier(both Movistar), Louis Meintjes (NTT Pro Cycling) and Joe Dombrowski (UAE Team Emirates). Meanwhile, Hector Carretero dropped back. The gap is 2'25" back to the main pack.
150km to go: Cat.1 Passo Castrin
After a slight downhill drop, we're now on to the second climb of the day, which is also known as the Hofmandjoch. It's 8.6km at 9% and the advantage of the 10 leaders has just dropped below the minute mark.
155km to go: EF Pro Cycling chase
Their man in blue Ruben Guerreiro may have taken maximum points over the first climb, but he's missed out on this move. With Ben O'Connor there, Guerreiro has concerns for his maglia azzurra. He's currently on 216 points with the Australian, in third place in the KOM standings, up to 67. That seems like a huge gap but there are still 130 points up for grabs today. If yesterday's stage winner can take maximum points over them all, he will be right in the mix and just 19 points down on the Portuguese.
160km to go: 10 now ahead
Four more riders have joined the leaders: Alessandro Tonelli (Bardiani-CSF), Hector Carretero (Movistar), Ben O'Connor (NTT Pro Cycling) and Ben Swift (Ineos Grenadiers). The gap is 1'15". The best placed of these escapees on GC is Ben Swift, who is only 36'58" down on Joao Almeida, which says a bit about the standard of the fight for pink, perhaps, this year.
The Stelvio awaits
Because it's the Stelvio today and it's such a mythical and photogenic climb, we'll be dropping in images of the legendary pass in the built up to its appearance. Let's start with this shot of the north side from the now-retired photographer Graham Watson, who was once part of the peloton furniture in all major races.
It's worth adding that the Giro hasn't come up the eastern side from Trafoi since 2005 when Ivan Basso had a spot of bother... The last three visits were from the west/south approach via Bormio with Mikel Landa, Dario Cataldo and Thomas De Gendt going over first. And in 2013, of course, the Stelvio was cancelled owing to poor weather.
170km to go: Six go clear
There's been a preliminary shake out and we have six riders now with a gap of one minute over the streamlined pack. They are Fabio Felline (Astana), Stephane Rossetto (Cofidis), Daniel Navarro (Israel Start-Up Nation), Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal, Dario Cataldo (Movistar) and Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers).
180km to go: Back together
The large break has now merged with the pink jersey group and so we now have a "peloton" of around 40 riders. That shows how frantic the start to this stage has been. Such a shame we have no pictures for now... Things may settle now as they approach the foot of the climb and emkark on the flat-to-lumpy transition towards the foot of the next climb.
190km to go: Breakaway fading
The large break has fragmented a bit on the descent, plus the maglia rosa group behind is closing in. Such was the early shake-out on the first climb, the main pack that includes Joao Almeida and his GC rivals was only about 20 strong going over the top of the climb...
Covid scare for Astana
No riders are thought to be affected, but the Kazakh team had a positive test returned from a staff member.
192km to go: Guerreiro takes KOM points
The Portuguese is looking to sew up the blue jersey today - and who can blame him? He takes the maximum 18pts over the top of the Campo Carlo Magno climb ahead of Ben O'Connor, Dario Cataldo, Stephane Rossetto, Joe Dombrowski and Domen Novak. The 24 leaders have around 20 seconds on the main pack, so it's still touch and go.
195km to go: 24 go clear
We're hearing that a large group of 24 riders - including triple stage winner Filippo Ganna of Ineos Grenadiers and Sam Oomen of Sunweb - have opened up a small gap ahead of the summit of the first climb.
198km to go: Summit approaching
Still no gap. Riders have gone off the back, but none off the front. Joe Dombrowski (EF Pro Cycling) and Matthew Holmes (Lotto Soudal) were also in the mix earlier, but it came to nothing. Details sketchy because we still don't have any live images from the host broadcaster. Hopefully we'll get those at some point on the next climb.
200km to go: Attacks not sticking
That man Guerreiro has been trying to open up a gap ahead of the pack but with no joy so far. His latest dig was alongside yesterday's stage winner, Ben O'Connor of NTT Pro Cycling, the Italian Stefano Oldani (Lotto Soudal) and the Colombian Einar Rubio of Movistar.
205km to go: Cat.2 Campo Carlo Magno
The road goes uphill from the outset with the first climb, which is a steady grind of 5.8% over 14.2km. There are 18pts available over the summit and then a further 40-50-40 points over the next three climbs today. That makes a grand total of 148 KOM points up for grabs.
But with the withdrawal of Visconti, it looks to be a very one-sided battle for blue. Portugal's Ruben Guerreiro of EF Pro Cycling took the maglia azzurra back yesterday after conceding it on Sunday to Visconti, a week after he took it for the first place after his win at Roccaraso. He has 198pts, which was a 50-point lead over Visconti, and is now a 116-point lead over his new nearest challenger, Belgium's Thomas De Gendt of Lotto Soudal.
207km to go: They're off!
Stage 18 is under way. The riders have left Pinzolo and let's hope that all the sprinters have bought their tickets for the gruppetto party bus in time...
Big day for Joao Almeida
The Portuguese 22-year-old debutant is four days away from glory - but so was Simon Yates in 2018 and we all know what happened to him in Stage 19 on the Colle delle Finestre. So, too, was Steven Kruijswijk a few years before that - and by a far larger margin - when Vincenzo Nibali fought back.
As things stand, Almeida holds a slender 17-second lead on Wilco Kelderman, who put the pink jersey under serious pressure on that stage to Piancavallo won by Tao Geoghegan Hart. The British rider from Ineos is in fourth, one second behind Kelderman's Sunweb teammate Jai Hindley, who is 2'58" down on Almeida. Completing the top five, Pello Bilbao is 3'12" down for Bahrain-McLaren.
Giovanni Visconti non-starter
Big news coming through - there will be no place in the peloton today for the Italian veteran, who lost the blue jersey yesterday to Ruben Guerreiro. He has apparently been struggling with tendonitis in his knee. That's a blow for the 37-year-old Italian and his Vini Zabu-KTM team.
135 riders in the neutral zone
The remaining 135 riders in the race are making their way through the neutral zone ahead of today's decisive 207km stage. It will go up from the outset with the first of four climbs providing the perfect launchpad for an early attack. Will some of the teams of the GC riders try to get bodies in the break, or will they keep their collective powder dry until the second half of the stage, when the Stelvio rears its ugly head?
A little taster of what's to come...
We couldn't get things going without a picture of those iconic hairpin bends, now, could we?
Good morning, cycling fans... Ready for the Stelvio?
Finally, the day of GC reckoning is upon is. Well, not us, thank God, but the remaining riders in the mix for the pink jersey - plus all the rest who will have to get through today's horrific, torturous, six-hour slugfest over four almighty peaks, including the fearsome Passo dello Stelvio - the highest point in this year's Giro and the moment of truth for Joao Almeida and his Deceuninck Quick-Step teammates.
'GIRO CONTENDERS FEAR THE STELVIO' - WIGGINS
Bradley Wiggins says that the general classification contenders at the Giro d’Italia are fearful of the upcoming ascent of the Stelvio. The highest climb in the 2020 Giro will be tackled in Thursday’s Stage 18, with big changes expected in the GC as Deceuninck – Quick-Step’s Joao Almeida looks to hold on to the maglia rosa.
Speaking on the latest episode of The Breakaway, Bradley Wiggins revealed that he had spoken to Ineos leader Tao Geoghegan Hart after Wednesday’s Stage 17 and passed on some of the insight from the British rider.
“I just spoke to Tao after the finish and he said that everyone’s a bit scared for tomorrow,” Wiggins said.
"He said that there was a lot of looking at each other, a lot of hesitation and a lot of mind games going on, people checking out each other, all with a view of tomorrow. A lot of people were fearful of pushing the envelope a little bit too much today and paying for their efforts tomorrow."
HOW TO WATCH THE GIRO D'ITALIA LIVE – TV & LIVE STREAMING
The 103rd edition of the Giro d'Italia is live on Eurosport, eurosport.co.uk and the Eurosport App.
You can watch the entire race on digital platforms for £6.99 (monthly subscription), while an annual pass is £39.99.
Each day Eurosport.co.uk will stream uninterrupted coverage of each stage. We will also have rolling coverage online on the website and our social channels.
And don't forget, we are bringing you daily podcasts from the Bradley Wiggins Show - check in with your podcast platform of choice each evening.
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