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Ballerini is back with the peloton and looks fine to continue. 65km to go.
68km to go and the gap is down to 1'24. We have another intermediate sprint and then those two fourth cat climbs in the finale.
Ballerini has as cut on the left side of his face. Something has hit him, and it doesn't look like he has fallen. The Italian is back with the medical car and receiving treatment and should be fine as the medic looks to stem the blood flow.
Back in the bunch and Demare is moving up as he wants what's left of the points. There's only one point on offer and Demare has a 36 point lead over Sagan. Demare takes the point, no contest. The Bora leader is saving everything for the sprint finish.
Pellaud is going clear up front and he takes maximum points at the intermediate after a big attack. Nice move from the Androni rider, which was covered by his teammate.
De Gendt, who was almost in the break this morning, is near the back of the bunch and calling for the team car.
Sunday see the Tour of Flanders take place. You can find our men's preview here, and our women's preview here. We'll have live text coverage for both races this weekend.
The bunch race through the feedzone with 90km to go and that easing in pace allows the break to take a few more seconds.
The bunch have to be careful here because if they continue like this they'll make the capture of the break far too early. The gap is currently down to 1'30 with 97km to go.
Simone Ravanelli, from Bergamo, is racing his first Grand Tour. He's got a few decent results to his name, mostly on home soil, but his job today will be to pull the break along for as long ass possible. He's in the break alongside his more experienced teammate Simon Pellaud. The rider from Switzerland was fifth yesterday.
Situation
With 100km to go the leaders, Bouchard, Contreras, Pellaud, Ravanelli, Rota, Tonelli and Vanhoucke have 1'43 over the peloton.
Navarro is back on the front for ISN with Bodnar on his wheel and we've 107km to go and the gap is holding at 1'53.
A reminder of our leaders: Bouchard, Contreras, Pellaud, Ravanelli, Rota, Tonelli and Vanhoucke. They have 1'50 over the peloton with 113km to go as Bora once more lead the chase.
Some news just in, Ilnur Zakarin to join Gazprom-RusVelo in 2021. He was of course looking for a team after it was confirmed that CCC were leaving at the end of the season.
Trek Segafredo, who other than Nibali were MIA yesterday, have gathered near the front of the bunch as they protect their GC chances. Today will be about keeping Nibali out of trouble and making sure that he starts tomorrow's TT as fresh as possible.
2'10 now, so the main field has eased up as we see a few dark clouds appear overhead.
There's a bit of a cross-wind right now but nothing too serious at the moment. That could change later on though the further we get into the stage but right now the leaders have 1'58, so the gap is up for the first time in almost an hour.
It's been a relatively uncomplicated stage so far with the seven man break forming early on and now the bunch content to just keep them at a safe distance. 124km to go.
Almeida, in pink, just sits in the QuickStep line towards the front of the bunch. He's got the TT tomorrow and could well extend his lead in the overall standings. He leads Wilco Kelderman at present, and here's a reminder of the GC heading into today's stage:
General classification
1 Joao Almeida (Por) Deceuninck-Quickstep 49:21:46
2 Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Team Sunweb 0:0:34
3 Pello Bilbao (Spa) Bahrain McLaren 0:0:43
4 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) NTT Pro Cycling 0:0:57
5 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Trek-Segafredo 0:01:01
6 Patrick Konrad (Aut) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:01:15
7 Jai Hindley (Aus) Team Sunweb 0:01:19
8 Rafal Majka (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:01:21
9 Fausto Masnada (Ita) CCC Team 0:01:36
10 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana Pro Team 0:02:20
In other news, Michael Matthews has reportedly tested negative for COVID twice since his Giro d'Italia exit. Sophie Smith has the scoop right here.
It's still Navarro, who used to ride in the mountains for Alberto Contador, who sits on the front of the peloton. He's brought the gap to the leaders back to 1'45 with 128km to go.
Ineos have also lined out their riders near the front of the bunch but they're not yet contributing to the chase. They're going to save their powder for the two climbs in the finale and the possible reduced bunch sprint.
No pressure on QuickStep or Almeida at the moment as they sit back and let other teams do the work. The problem for the break at this point is that they are continuing to lose time with the gap down to 1'59.
Navarro, who has been top-ten in both the Tour and the Vuelta continues to drive the peloton along. The 37-year-old is out of contract at the end of this season but he's putting in a shift here for ISN who already have a stage win through Alex Dowsett.
The bunch take a few more seconds off the break's lead and it's down to 2'20 with 141km to go. There's some interest from Cofidis - who haven't won a stage yet - who have joined the chase. The seven leaders are working well but on these long, flat and exposed roads it's really hard to build up an advantage.
Pellaud in the break for the second time in two days as we see the gap hold at 2'47 with 146km to go. We have our break of the day but they're not being given a huge amount of wiggle room at this point.
Benedetti, who was in the break yesterday, is on the front right now, before Navarro moves up for ISN and takes a long turn. They missed the break today and won't be happy as we see the GC teams group together in the main field.
So Androni have two more riders in the break as we see Bora hit the front and set the pace for the peloton. They're keeping the gap at around 3 minutes as we see the peloton line out.
The leaders in the break are: Bouchard (AGR), Pellaud (ANS), Ravanelli (ANS), Contreras (AST), Tonelli (BCF), Vanhoucke (LTS), Rota (THR) and they have 2'57 with 150km remaining.
Sagan is perhaps the main favourite for the stage today. He has the form and the confidence after his earlier win in the race. The two climbs in the final give him the chance to drop Demare before the sprint as we finally see a break move clear with 160km to go.
Meanwhile at the finish the sun is out and there's very little wind to speak of.
Breaking news just in: Équipe Paule Ka collapse after title sponsor stops funding
18km raced and it's been a rapid start to the stage but still no breaks. Nothing.
Ineos will unveil their Vuelta a Espana line up later on today (probably) and they've changed their eight-man roster a couple of times in the last few weeks. Here's the latest on their team. It's highly likely that this will be their squad for Spain but they - like all teams - have until 72 hours before the race to make any changes.
14km of the stage covered and still no break.
De Gendt hasn't taken a win this season and he admitted that his legs weren't great at the Tour de France but the main problem with being Thomas De Gendt is that everyone wants to be in the break with you, so as soon as he moves the front he's followed by a dozen riders right away. It makes is doubly hard to make it into the break.
As you would expect, Androni have been firing riders up the road but no luck so far, as now we see De Gendt move towards the front of the action. It's mostly flat for the opening 150km of today's stage but the wind direction could be crucial later on.
We've rattled through the first 9km of the stage and there's no sign of a breakaway.
And we are racing on stage 13 of the Giro d'Italia. All the teams signed on, and we're underway.
Go! Go! Go! #Giro pic.twitter.com/wqk67bCmMZOctober 16, 2020
And here's Thomas de Gendt, who didn't get a huge bonus to race the Giro, but here neatly sums up the vibe within the peloton.
"I have to be honest: my head is not really in the race after the news of the 17 infected police officers," De Gendt said to Sporza in Cesenatico.
"Things are going badly in this Giro. We have been discussing with the riders in the team for 20 minutes about whether or not to start because we are starting to feel unsafe."
"There have been more than 10 cases and yesterday I heard several riders coughing. It's the cold season, but in the long run you can't concentrate anymore," he said.
"Some riders prefer not to start, others do. Everyone is free to do so. I'm one of the riders who would rather not start. Everyone chooses for themselves.
"If you stop, it's over. But you can continue until it's too late. Do I feel unsafe? It's going the wrong way. It's not so much for myself as for my family. I don't want to infect anyone – I'm concerned about that."
A bit more on the Vuelta before we head back to the Giro action and Sunweb have just announced their line-up.
#LaVuelta20 The guys who will be repping our colours across Spain @lavuelta👊🏻🇳🇱 @ThymenArensman 🇬🇧 @markdon99 🇩🇪 Max Kanter🇦🇺 Robert Power🇩🇪 Martin Salmon🇦🇺 @mjstorer_au 🇩🇪 @JashaStterlin 🇧🇪 @IlanWilder 💻https://t.co/jqfjil9SrO pic.twitter.com/qYmhxFRroMOctober 16, 2020
Lappartient did have this (below) warning ahead of the Vuelta, which is due to start next week. As far as we know all of the invited teams are going to be on the startline. Mitchelton were undecided but had internal meetings on Wednesday and will race.
"The efforts that cycling has been taking have been paying off. But we must not let go; the danger is still there. If we want the Vuelta to take place, we'll have to make the protocols even stricter, as Spain has been hit even harder than Italy."
What a stat: a @deceuninck_qst rider has been GC leader in 21% of stage race days in 2020 (.1 and above)👉 32 race days with a Deceuninck Quick Step rider as GC leader: Almeida (10), Evenepoel (9), Bagioli (3), Steimle (3), Alaphilippe (3), Jakobsen (2), Honoré (1), Bennett (1) pic.twitter.com/eyOXEUyukYOctober 15, 2020
Before we get underway, here are the GC standings heading into the stage:
General classification
1 Joao Almeida (Por) Deceuninck-Quickstep 49:21:46
2 Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Team Sunweb 0:0:34
3 Pello Bilbao (Spa) Bahrain McLaren 0:0:43
4 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) NTT Pro Cycling 0:0:57
5 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Trek-Segafredo 0:01:01
6 Patrick Konrad (Aut) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:01:15
7 Jai Hindley (Aus) Team Sunweb 0:01:19
8 Rafal Majka (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:01:21
9 Fausto Masnada (Ita) CCC Team 0:01:36
10 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana Pro Team 0:02:20
Meanwhile, the president of all things on two wheels, David Lapparient, has told us all that cycling has the global pandemic 'under control'.
'The efforts that cycling has been taking have been paying off but we must not let go' says the UCI president.
The biggest news from yesterday came from EF. They decided they could/should/would go home if everyone else wanted to. No one did, however, and the UCI have slapped down their requests to end the race early. Here's that story. The American team has stated that they will leave the race if they return one positive test, which seems entirely fair after Jumbo Visma put their rider and staff first earlier in the race.
Leaving Galzignano Terme, the riders will enter the Euganean hills, ancient volcanoes that overlook the Padovan-Venetian plain, where there are two fourth-category climbs. The first to Roccolo (averaging 8.3 per cent over 4.1km) comes in two parts, the first rising up the Muro di Vallorta, where the gradient briefly touches 20 per cent, and the second continuing to Roccolo, where there’s another abrupt ramp that’s almost as steep.
Leaving Rivadolmo there’s a second “wall”, this time the Muro di Calaone, which is just a tad under 10 per cent gradient for 2.1 kilometres. Like the Vallorta, it takes a narrow, twisting route through dense woodland and offers the chance for punchy climbers to ambush the sprinters. Cresting this climb, there are 16 kilometres to cover io the finish, initially winding through a series of small villages until, on the approach to Monselice, the road runs straight and wide. This will give the sprinters’ teams an opportunity to reel in any riders who have taken flight.
The run-in is comparatively straightforward, until an extremely sharp left-hand bend 400 metres from the line. The battle to be in the vanguard at this point will be especially fierce, as whichever team secure it will probably win the day.
This should, in theory, end in a reduced bunch sprint as we have two fourth cat climbs in the finale but who knows how the stage could play out today. Demare will be looking for his fifth win of the race but will Groupama be content to the work on the front throughout the stage or will Cofidis and UAE once more do the work as they look for their first stage wins in the race?
Long time no see.
Welcome to our live coverage from stage 13 of the Giro d'Italia. We are in Cervia this morning and most of the bunch still in the race have signed on and are ready to race. We should be underway in about 20 minutes.
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October 16, 2020 at 04:16PM
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