Giro d'Italia 2023 Stage 15 recap: Bruno Armirail keeps pink, Brandon McNulty wins thrilling three-way battle for stage

It makes a change to see the riders basking in sunshine after all the rain that we've had so far these past two weeks. It will be welcome relief not to have to contend with arm warmers, jackets, gloves and drenched kit - that's for sure. The gap has stabilised at 6'30" with Groupama tapping out the necessary tempo behind.

The gap is 6'35" for the 17 leaders as they complete the descent and embark on 20km of flat riding ahead of the intermediate sprint which precedes the next two climbs. One of the 17 escapees will no doubt win today with the likes of Healy, Rubio, Mollema and McNulty among the favourites - on paper.

Ineos Grenadiers's decision to relinquish Geraint Thomas's pink jersey to Bruno Armirail seems to have already paid off. All the pacing and chasing in the pack has been carried out by the Frenchman's Groupama-FDJ team - allowing Ineos to take things easy alongside rivals Jumbo-Visma today. Of course, that will change on the final climb when things kick off - but being deprived of the obligation of regulating and riding on the front will be a welcome tonic for Ineos.

The deficit is around seven minutes as Groupama and Ineos lead the pack over the top of the Valico di Valcava. Healy stayed out ahead for a while after opening up that gap for the KOM points. But the Irish rider is back in the break and the other strugglers are fighting back on after losing touch near the summit.

Dan Lloyd, meanwhile, has just recognised a bend in the road where he crashed in an old edition of the Giro di Lombardia - while riding uphill - and broke his collarbone. Cue much mirth in the Eurosport studio...

Wow - and that was unexpected! After Rubio puts in an early attack for the KOM points, there's a big reaction from a handful of others - including Gavazzi, doing his best to defend team-mate Davide Bais' lead in the maglia azzurra standings. But it's Healy who really goes for it - reeling in the Colombian and then riding clear. But Rubio battles back - and then they go shoulder-to-shoulder as the fans crowd in, before Healy eventually proves strongest and kicks clear for the points.

Healy takes 40pts and Rubio settles for 18pts. That puts the Colombian up to 86pts to consolidate his third place in the KOM standings (Bais leads on 144pts, PInot on 114pts). Healy's haul sees the Irish rider move onto 64pts and up into fourth.

As one of the faster finishers of this breakaway, it's no surprise to see Alberto Dainese going out the back on the steepest part of this opening climb. Surprising, though, to see that it's Davide Ballerini who is doing the damage. His jersey unzipped, Balerini is the one doing all the work on this climb. Does he have an agreement with someone else in the break because he's not working for himself here - nor does he have a team-mate in the move.

Dainese, meanwhile, digs deep to return to the wheel of Martin Marcellusi, who is also struggling a bit. Both riders are now rooted to the back of the group. The gap has come down to 5'45" as the peloton grinds on behind. Groupama, Ineos, Jumbo and Bora are all riding in team formation on the front.

What a fight back from Martin Marcellusi! The Italian was dropped by Einer Rubio around half an hour ago after the Colombian kicked on to try and join the break. We imagined he'd ease up and get caught by the pack, but the Roman rouleur kept plugging away and has now - from nowhere - managed to ride up and into the breakaway. So we now have 17 riders in total off the front with a gap of 6'20" on the Groupama-led pack.

Once back, Marcellusi looks towards the camera tracking his progress and makes a funny exclamation to show how hard his effort was and how relieved he is that it paid off. Chapeau!

Davide Balleriini - one of only three Soudal Quick-Step riders left in this race after the Belgian team's Covid woes - is setting the tempo in the break on this climb when he sees a couple of familiar faces from his fan club. He gets out his water bottle and douses one chap with a magaphone while another films the spectacle on his phone. Ballerini is one of the local riders today and so he should receive a lot of support along the route.

The Italian is also one of the fastest finishers in this motley crew of a break - up there with Alberto Dainese and Niccolo Bonifazio. Unlucky for them, there are also some superb climbers in this move - most notably Healy, McNulty, Rubio and Mollema.

With that Movistar duo now among them, the 16 leaders are onto the Cat.1 Valico di Valcava (11.7km at 7.9%). Behind it's the Groupama-FDJ team of surprise pink jersey Bruno Armirail who lead the peloton, 5'35" in arrears.

JJ Rojas knocks it off so he can pick up Rubio and help lead his team-mate into the break. On paper, Rubio could well be the favourite today from this move - right up there with Ben Healy. But it will be interesting to see how much that long chase has taken out f his legs - it was a huge effort. The Colombian is the best placed rider on GC in the move, currently 11'04" down in 18th place.

Winner at Crans Montana two days ago, Einer Rubio has dropped his fellow chaser Martin Marcellusi on a short uncategorised climb that precedes the first major ascent of the day. The Colombian is giving it his all to join the breakaway, where he would find his Movistar team-mate Jose Joaquin Rojas. Rubio is 30 seconds down on the 15 leaders, who have 5'20" on the pack.

The Irishman and the Italian have a short discussion and then decide to knock it off and wait for the others. The camera picked up Velasco saying something along the lines of: "Let's wait now and then we can push on together later." To which Healy just nods his head and says, "Okay". This 15-man move has one minute over the two chasers and over four minutes now on the pack.

The chase group has Einer Rubio (Movistar) and Martin Marcellusi (Green Project-Bardiani) in pursuit as well as Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) and Simone Velasco (Astana-Qazaqstan) around 20 seconds up the road. They are:

Davide Ballerini (Soudal Quick-Step)
Andrea Pasqualon (Bahrain Victorious)
Francois Bidard (Cofidis)
Vincenzo Albanese and Francesco Gavazzi (Eolo-Kometa)
Niccolo Bonifazio and Laurens Huys (Intermarche-Circus-Wanty)
Sebastian Berwick and Marco Frigo (Israel-PremierTech)
Alberto Dainese (Team DSM)
Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo)
Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates)

Two riders at polar opposite ends of their career celebrate their birthdays today. British champion Mark Cavendish turns 38 while Norway's Andreas Leknessund - who enjoyed a stint in pink in the opening week - is 24. We're hearing that Cavendish will make a big announcement about his future tomorrow. It's likely that he will retire after the Tour de France.

Stage 8 winner Ben Healy was always going to be one to watch on a day like today. He's riding well with Velasco out ahead. They have 20 seconds on the chase group of around a dozen riders - including Ballerini, Pasqualon, Fortunato, Mollema and Frigo. Einer Rubio of Movistar - the Stage 13 winner - is trying to bridge over from the pack, ditto a Green Project-Bardiani rider whose attack from the peloton was quite dicey and involved him coming very close to a parked car on the side of the road as he swerved around the blockage on the front of the pack by the GC teams.

Those early skirmishes came to nothing - although they did manage to stretch out the pack and put some riders in serious difficulty off the back. Ireland's Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) then goes clear and has an Astana-Qazaqstan rider - Simone Velasco - hot in pursuit. They come together but around a dozen riders are trying to bridge over from the peloton, which looks to be easing up.

Down goes the flag and this Lombardia-lite stage gets going with an attack from Bauke Mollema, Mattia Bais and a handful of other riders. It's a nervous start because we're in quite a suburban setting with numerous roundabouts and bits of road furniture. It's going to take some time before this settles.

After losing the maglia azzurra to Thibaut Pinot on Friday's shortened stage, Davide Bais got in yesterday's breakaway and took it back on the Passo del Sempione. He now has a 30pt lead on the Frenchman in the KOM standings - although the final week will be key in this competition.

As for the maglia ciclamino, well Jonathan Milan looks increasingly assured of this jersey - provided he can complete his debut Grand Tour. The Bahrain Victorious rider saw his nearest challenger - Mads Pedersen - abandon two days ago so his closest rival is now Derek Gee, the Canadian who has now finished runner-up on three occasions. They are separated by 52 points.