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The peloton is at near 7:00 now.
130km to go
The riders in the break hit the Sella Chianzutan climb. It is 10.6km at 5.4%.
Deceuninck-QuickStep lead the peloton, with five riders leading and protecting Almeida for now.
Kelderman is seen as a big favourite now. He has Sam Oomen and Jai Hindley to back him and they could make a difference.
Jakob Fuglsang has lost more time but remains a threat despite lacking a strong team.
Almeida has Knox and Masnada for the climbs while Nibali has lost key domestique Giulio Ciccone, who abandoned the Giro yesterday due to bronchitis.
The peloton has eased massively, with the gap up to 5:00. That could help the break stay away to the finish.
There are few GC teams left in the Giro with the strength to chase the attacks to try to win the stages as well as defend their GC positions. We are likely to see breakaways stay away each day in the final week.
Nathan Haas (Cofidis) was in the attack but has also dropped back as the De Gendt pace hurts everyone.
The peloton is more than two minutes back now.
Edoardo Zardini has been distanced as Thomas De Gendt sets the pace in the 11-rider break.
There are 11 riders in the attack, with others making a desperate attempt to get across.
Indeed, the gruppo has eased the break has opened a 1:00 lead.
The break is still fighting to stay away as the first climb approaches. This could be the moment the elastic snaps or the peloton shuffles again.
To read Barry Ryan's full report on Almeida's time trial and hopes for today's stage, click below.
Almeida ready to go the distance at Giro d'Italia
After taking 6th on the stage, 1:31 behind Ganna, Almeida now has an advantage of 56 seconds over Kelderman, 2:11 over Pello Bilbao (Bahrain McLaren) and some 2:30 over Vincenzo Nibali (Trek-Segafredo), while Jakob Fulgsang (Astana) is over four minutes back.
“I actually won more time than I expected,” Almeida admitted on Saturday evening in Valdobbiadene. “I was expecting to lose time to Kelderman, and also with Nibali I was expecting it to be close. But in the end, I could gain time and that is very positive for me.”
Almeida has mastered his longest time trial, but he is still only two-thirds of the way through his longest race. Like Brandon McNulty, now 4th overall, racing for a 14th consecutive day is a new experience – “My longest race was, I think, the Baby Giro, so ten days in a row,” Almeida said – the Portuguese rider appears to be warming to the sheer distance of this event.
On Sunday, Almeida faces another robust examination when the Giro tackles three mountain passes en route to the tough summit finish at Piancavallo. Although the youngster rode with assurance to move into pink at Etna, he was unable to match the accelerations in the final kilometre at Roccaraso. For better or for worse, however, neither stage was an equivalent test to the one he faces on Sunday and beyond.
Today's mountain finish will be huge test for João Almeida and his hope of keeping the maglia rosa and trying to win the Giro d'Italia.
The 22-year-old has impressed in the second week but is racing into unknown territory in the third week of a Grand Tour.
On Friday evening, Almeida confessed that he had never raced such a long time trial and, despite his qualities as a rouleur, nobody seemed entirely sure of what he might achieve on stage 14. Most reckoned he might keep the jersey, but few anticipated that he would end the day with a lead of over two minutes on everyone bar second-placed Wilco Kelderman (Team Sunweb).
The 12 riders on the attack are:
Andrea Vendrame, Luca Chirico, Manuele Boaro, Mark Padun, Nathan Haas, Daniel Navarro, Thomas De Gendt, Matthew Holmes, Davide Villella, Rohan Dennis, Giovanni Visconti and Edoardo Zardini.
The riders are San Daniele del Friuli, where Tuesday's stage will finish. It is warm and dry for now but much colder at the mountain finish.
The riders are on the flat roads of the Friuli plain but the speed is high.
None of the 12 are a GC threat but some in the peloton wants a different scenario and so are chasing hard.
In the 12-rider break are Thomas De Gednt and Rohan Dennis but the peloton is not letting them go.
The gap is just 25 seconds.
Back to today's stage ands the early break includes 12 riders.
Tonkov confirmed he was Pantani's new threat as Zülle lost more time on the steep finish to Alpe di Pampeago. The Russian was only 27 seconds behind in the general classification, with Zülle at 2:08, and Pantani knew he would need to pull another "impresa (epic ride)" if he wanted to win the Giro. Fortunately, stage 19 finished up at Plan di Montecampione after 243km of racing.
The finale of the stage is now legendary. Zülle cracked entirely and lost half an hour. Pantani and Tonkov fought like boxers on the twisting climb to the finish, with il Pirata - in the pink jersey - landing a series of attacks and accelerations, only for Tonkov to respond each time and stay in the fight.
"Either I'm going to blow up or he will," Pantani told himself, even throwing away his diamond nose stud before the decisive attack with three kilometres to go. Riding with his hands in the drops in his usual attacking position, Pantani gained a metre, then two, then more. Tonkov could suffer nor respond no more, the elastic snapped, and Tonkov's head bowed in defeat. Pantani went on to gain 57 seconds and extended his lead on the Russian to 1:27.
"Tutta Italia urla: Pantani! (All of Italy screams: Pantani!)" was the headline in Tuttosport, with 4.5 million Italians - 51 per cent of that day's television audience - glued to their televisions to cheer on Pantani.
The 34km time trial from Mendrisio to Lugano was the final obstacle between Pantani and victory at the Giro d'Italia.
The tension at Mercatone Uno matched the excitement of the fans, especially following the expulsion of teammate Riccardo Forconi for a high haematocrit. Pantani raced with a bandage on his arm after also undergoing a blood test. According to Rendell's book, Pantani's blood value was 49.3 per cent - scarily close to the 50 per cent limit.
Almost a year to the day in 1999, Pantani's blood haematocrit was measured at 52 per cent at Madonna di Campiglio, and he was disqualified from the race while wearing the maglia rosa. However, in 1998 Pantani seemed untouchable and unstoppable. He even gained five seconds on Tonkov in the time trial and rode into Milan the day after as the winner of the 1998 Giro d'Italia.
Stage 17 to Selva di Val Gardena included the Passo Duran, Forcella Staulanza, the Marmolada and the Passo di Sella. According to Matt Rendell's excellent Pantani biography, Pantani asked teammate Roberto Conti when the Marmolada began, only to be told they were already halfway up the 14km climb.
Pantani soon attacked, getting away with Giuseppe Guerini as Zülle cracked and Tonkov suffered. Pantani gifted Guerini the stage but gained over four minutes on Zülle and so pulled on the pink jersey for the first time in his career. He kissed the maglia rosa and beamed a big smile in a rare show of pure happiness.
Pantani in pink was front-page news on every newspaper in Italy and on every news bulletin. Pantani-mania was in full flow. An estimated one million fans packed the roadside and thousands of others decided to head to the mountains to be part of what felt like a historic moment.
Alex Zülle won the time trial in Nice at the start of the 1998 Giro, gaining 39 seconds, but Pantani replied by attacking whenever possible, even on the Capo Berta climb before the stage 2 finish in Imperia.
Pantani knew that Zülle would gain minutes on him in the two time trials and could only hope that a long spell in the pink jersey would slowly fatigue the Swiss rider and his Festina teammates.
Zülle won stage 6 and extended his lead, but Pantani responded by attacking and winning stage 11 to Piancavallo.
"I take risks and attack, that's why the tifosi love me. This is the start of my race, and Zülle should be afraid," Pantani said after the stage. He was often quietly spoken and reflective but never afraid to respond to his rivals.
However, Zülle responded out on the road by winning the next day's time trial in Trieste. He caught, dropped and humiliated Pantani, gaining 3:26. Pantani fumed but refused to admit defeat, knowing that a Trittico of terrible mountain stages were still to come.
"Non e' finito (It's not over yet)," Pantani insisted.
To read more about Marco Pantani, the 1998 Giro d'italia and his subsequent tragic decline click below.
The Piancavallo climb been designated as this year’s Cima Pantani, the climb most representative of “Il Pirata”, honouring that 1998 stage win.
At 14.5km long, its steepest sections come in the opening half-dozen kilometres, which average 9.4 per cent and feature several pitches that are two and three points above that.
Any rider who loses even a little ground here is likely to yield a lot more on the second half of the climb, where the easier grades will enable rivals to increase their advantage, as Quintana was able to do three years ago.
After running downhill for 25km, the road rears up again, passing through the second sprint at Poffabro on route to the third category 2 hill of the day, the Forcella di Pala Barzana, which extends 13.3 kilometres but averages just 4.4 per cent. Another long drop follows to reach Aviano, at the foot of the climb to the first-category finale at Piancavallo.
The 185km stage the ski resort begins on the Friuli plain. It rises gently for the opening 50 kilometres or so, the gradient kicking up significantly for the first time on the Sella Chianzutan, a second-category climb that averages 5.4 per cent over 10.6 kilometres.
The first intermediate sprint lies in the valley beyond, where the riders are soon climbing again, initially to the uncategorised Forcella di Priuso and then to another cat 2 hurdle, the Forcella di Monte Rest. This one is not long at 7.4km, but averages a steady 8 per cent gradient once past its early ramps.
There should be plenty more high-flying action today, with four climbs on the menu, the last of them up to Piancavallo where Marco Pantani was the solo winner on the Giro’s first visit in 1998.
On the race’s return in 2017, Mikel Landa emulated Pantani, while Tom Dumoulin couldn’t stay with his GC rivals and lost the maglia rosa to Nairo Quintana.
The flag has dropped in the race after the Frecce Tricolori show and we have the first attacks.
Teams will be trying to win the stage with their climbers that are out of the GC and/or send riders up the road who can help their team leaders later in the stage.
There are 141 riders left in the Giro peloton today. the only non-starter is Sebastian Molano (UAE) after his crash in the TT.
This is the shot of the start captured by the Giro d'Italia Twitter feed.
As the music from Top Gun rings out across the start, the riders about to start the stage.
Stay with us to see who emerges as the Top Gun of the stage, who is the Maverick and Goose pilots the race and who is a defeated Iceman.
Fortunately the weather is dry today in Italy but it is cold at the 1290m high Piancavallo finish.
Our European Editor Barry Ryan is at Piancavallo to bring you all the news and interviews from the stage.
After yesterday's time trial the mountain finish is the second part of a big weekend for the overall classifica at the Giro.
The riders are now on the runway ready for their own take off and the mountain stage to Piancavallo.
Here are the Frecce Tricolori!
🟢🟢⚪️⚪️🔴🔴@ItalianAirForce @FrecceTricolori #Giro pic.twitter.com/4ozdNoPCMnOctober 18, 2020
Five minutes to take off!
Envol dans cinq minutes ✈️#Giro pic.twitter.com/vHcsM3JzNJOctober 18, 2020
It's a special day of racing in these very special times. Cycling has shown that racing can be held safely and as well as the Giro d'Italia there is also the men's and women's Tour of Flanders.
Click below to follow the live coverage of the men's Tour of Flanders, with Daniel Ostanek providing all the latest info.
Sadhbh O'Shea will have full live coverage of the women's race later today.
Tour of Flanders – Live coverage
The jets will give a brief display before the stage starts from inside their base near Udine in he northeast of Italy.
#Giro 🟢⚪️🔴"Are you ready to take off?"@ItalianAirForce 🤜🤛 @GannaFilippo pic.twitter.com/KUG5q17okSOctober 18, 2020
As the Cyclingnews blimp takes height we're being careful because today's stage starts with a display of the Italian Frecce Tricolori jet planes.
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October 18, 2020 at 03:45PM
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Giro d'Italia stage 15 – Live coverage - Cyclingnews.com
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