CYCLING Live

Giro d'Italia - *Cefalù - Agrigento

Live Comments

16:45 - See you tomorrow for coverage of stage three!
16:45 - A smashing finish there... Rodriquez looked to have it in the bag before the big guns swallowed him up with metres to spare. The youthful exuberance of Ricco won the day, with Pellizotti taking the pink jersey. A miserable day from Slipstream, who bossed the whole day only to lose Zabriskie to a bad crash and the maglia rosa.
16:39 - Franco Pellizotti takes the maglia rosa by one second from the shoulders of Slipstream's Christian Vandevelde thanks to a few bonus seconds...
16:38 - Ricco wins the stage in 5 hours and 48 minutes. Di Luca finishes second, Rebellin third and Pellizotti fourth.
0km - Ricco managed to beat the likes of Pelizzotti, Di Luca, Rebellin to take the scalp today... what a finish!
0.2km - Rodriguez won't hold on!! He's been caught with 200m to spare... AND IT'S RICCARDO RICCO OF SAUNIER DUVAL WHO LEADS A CLUSTER OF FIVE OVER THE LINE!!
0.5km - Bettini has hit the wall. Saunier are chasing... as are LPR!!
1km - Rodriguez attacks!! The Caisse d'Epargne rider, Sean Kelly's choice for today, has gone away!
1.5km - Di Luca is shouting instructions to his team-mates... meanwhile on the back Visconti is suffering...
2km - Super domestiques Paolo Savoldelli and Alessandro Spezialetti are there for Di Luca...
5.5km - Leipheimer is up there too... the pace is high... Simoni and Contador are there too... Di Luca's LPR still have control. Rebellin looks focused. The incline is pretty steep as they pass the Temple of Juno for the final time...
7km - QuickStip lead the left hand side of the road and LPR lead the right hand side... meanwhile, Tinkoff come up the middle... a lot of peloton politics going on now...
9km - Maybe Gaspirotto will have a go today... and never discount Rebellin of Gerolsteiner. O'Grady may have a pop. For some reason, i'm thinking Di Luca will do it. A brave punt, seeing that he's not in the best of form or condition, but he has his team there in hoards...
10km - All the Slipstream boys have hit the wall, except Vandevelde, in pink, who is hanging in. A bad day in the office for the American team, what with the loss of Zabriskie.
11km - The pace is very high now and a second gruppo has formed off the back of the leading peloton, driven by LPR brakes with quite some ferocity.
13km - Di Luca's team-mates from LPR lead the peloton up the steep section which will be used for the finish at the end of this next, last, lap. It will be a tricky finish, ideally suited to a punchy sprinter like Bettini, Zabel or Di Luca himself. Kloden of Astana is right at the front too.
14km - Steve (from Port Talbot) is surprised Tinkoff have been quiet today, given the weekend TV coverage in Italy. He adds: "Could Sean [Kelly, eurosport commentator] have a word in David [Harman]'s ear and ask him to stop banging on about the team kits? I feel its just a hard sport and not a fashion show - ha, ha!"
14km - Christian Vandevelde, the race leader, is right up there on the front of the peloton now. Bettini is in fourth. The big guns are getting ready.
15km - A few drops of rain are falling now... this may be a messy climax.
16km - It's a jostle for places on the front of the peloton now. The long, snake-like bunch has disappeared and the riders are now thinking about the finish. It's a pell-mell of teams up there, with no strong presence from one particular outfit. Di Luca is well placed. With today's uphill finish, he might even fancy his chances...
18km - Mads Mouritzen (rightly) thinks time-trials will be decisive in this year's Giro: "Klöden, who should still be on decent form after the tour of Romandie seems to have an obvious advantage. Along with his teammates Leipheimer and Contador who are also good timetrialists, but their form is not yet known. Vincenzo Nibali of Liquigas also has a good timetrial in him and should be one to look out for. With so many km done by timetrials, Di Luca, Ricco and Soler look like they're forced to take time in the mountains, which should make for a great race!"
19km - Backstedt is still on the front of the peloton. A titanic ride from Slipstream's big Swede.
20km - A reminder of today's sprint and two climbs: Second category climb - Sella, Cardenas, Seeldraeyers. Third category climb - Roy, Loosli, Pietropolli Intermediate sprint - Loosli, Roy, Bennati. Sella will be therefore wearing the green climber's jersey tonight, while the winner of tonight's stage will take the sprinter's cyclamen jersey.
25km - Backstedt is still there on the front... Slipstream riders surround him, bit there's also a strong presence from Lampre and QuickStep. The riders have entered the town of Agrigento. They now have a few laps of the old world championships course...
35km - The bunch is now stretched out in single file. Remarkably, it's still Backstedt who is setting the pace on the front.
15:45 - Any thoughts about today or the race in general? Email lowefelix@hotmail.com
40km - On that Zabriskie crash, race radio says it was a rail track which caused the fall... Julian Dean has a few cuts on his knee and so maybe he went down too.
43km - If you're interested in football, Ronaldo has just scored for Manchester United... the Premier League title is in sight. Back in Sicily, the rain hasn't really got going yet. It was just the odd spittle of rain... but the grey clouds ahead promise a downpour sometime soon!
45km - Bettini and Zabel have a chat in the peloton. Both will be targeting victory today... For Zabel, it would be his first ever Giro scalp.
47km - The two leaders, Roy and Loosli, have sat up and are swept in by the peloton. Magnus Backstedt leads the bunch, probably reeling after that unfortunate news about Zabriskie his team-mate. There looks to be a bit of rain dropping now too...
48km - Meanwhile, the duo's lead has been cut to just one minute!
49km - Contador was also involved in that crash, but he's back on his bike.
50km - Terrible shame for the moustachioed Zabriskie... his directeur sportif is holding his chest... the American looks in pain and confused... a new bike is out, but he's now being put on a stretcher... it looks like a collarbone or a chest injury there... terrible way for the time trial specialist to end his race - especially after the heroics of yesterday.
52km - CRASH IN THE PELOTON!! That's right at the front... And Slipstream's David Zabriskie is down and in quite some pain.
55km - High Road's Mark Cavendish pokes his tongue out at the camera man... He might be eyeing a victory tonight.
56km - Slipstream and LPR Brakes are driving the peloton now.
58km - The lead is 6'55".
60km - Liquigas and Barloworld riders break off the front of the peloton as the intermediate sprint approaches... and in the end it is Daniele Bennati of Liquigas who beats Enrico Gasparotto to the final points for third.
61km - Loosli beats Roy at the Giro's first intermediate sprint this year. They contested it, but in the end it was a straight forward scalp for the Lampre rider.
63km - The lead is down to 7'10".
66km - Roy and Loosli are combining well on the front, but it's clear that they are beginning to tire in the heat out there... They have a good gap, but it will be surprising to see them stay out there until the end.
68km - On the front of the peloton, Astana have now moved up just behind Slipstream to help the chase.
70km - Giovanni Visconti, the Italian champion, drops back to pick up some water bottles for his team mates.
75km - The gap is 8'15". It's going to be an interesting afternoon's racing... stay tuned!
76km - This long, sweeping descent has really stretched out the peloton, which now resembles a particularly long snake from above. Bettini is trying to edge towards the front... It's only May, but the grass that covers these rolling hills either side of the road is decidedly yellow.
86km - Magnus Backstedt is leading the fast descent for Slipstream... The lead is down to eight minutes again.
89km - That said, the points earlier today will ensure Sella will still be in green tomorrow.
90km - The attack there came from CSF's Emanuele Sella, who picked up the points on the first second-cat climb earlier today. He's clearly eyeing the green jersey tonight, but he was thwarted by the Slovenian rider Jure Golcer (LPR) there to the points.
93km - Four riders have jumped the pack on the ascent! It's the charge for third place over the summit...
95km - The lead is fluctuating; now dipped to under nine minutes. The duo have passed over the summit and are on the descent.
99km - The leaders have passed the feeding zone and have embarked on the third category Polizzello climb.
103km - Steve Morabito, who was involved in that earlier crash, is finding it hard going. The Astana rider got back into the peloton, but has now been distanced and looks in a bit of discomfort. It's going to be a long, hard afternoon for him.
106km - The two leaders - David Loosli (Lampre) and Jeremy Roy (FdJ) have opened up the gap, which is now 9'30". The roads are very undulating now, and while it's hot, there are some greyish clouds on the horizon.
108km - Just to report that those fallers are all ok and back in the saddle. But a worrying moment for Soler, who will have his eye on the final week of this year's race - three summit finishes and a mountain time trial up the Komkrampz.
110km - One non rider to report today: Milram's Igor Astarloa, who dropped out with a stomach bug. That makes the peloton 196 large now.
113km - There's been a crash in the peloton!! Steve Morabito (Astana), Patrick Calcagni and Tour de France king of the mountains Juan Mauricio Soler (both Barloworld) are amongst the fallers... Let's hope it's nothing serious.
120km - Victory for anti-doping? Yesterday's TTT was won by Slipstream, who were set up last year in accordance to a strong anti-doping stance. CSC, High Road and Astana also run similar programmes - and they made up the top four. As pink jersey Christian Vandevelde said: "The first three teams today plus Astana were those with the biggest anti-doping programmes within their teams. So that shows you that clean teams are winning now. You can say without a doubt that a clean team won today."
125km - The duo are now rolling towards the valley of the temples at Agrigento 6'20" ahead of the chasing peloton.
129km - The lead is down to 7'40".
130km - Could today's uphill drag of a sprint finish suit QuickStep's Paolo Bettini? The world champion said: "Agrigento is definitely the first good chance to win a stage. I know the finish because it was used for world championships in 1994 and I rode it the finish a few years ago when the Giro started down there. It's a difficult stage and not only because of the finish. It'll be tough all day. It's a good stage not to throw away."
133km - Slipstream are driving the peloton, cutting the lead to 8'20".
147km - The margin begins to drop a bit. The peloton makes up a minute to come within 9'12'' of the escapees.
153km - The lead only grows to 10'10'' for Loosli / Roy, who will hope to keep expanding the margin but should try to maintain some energy for the remaining 150 kilometres. Slipstream will certainly decide to make a move to catch these two at some point.
155km - These two riders did not finish yesterday's team time trial with the rest of their squads. Jérémy Roy fell behind a second group of FDJ riders in the final kilometres of the TT, and Switzerland's David Loosli suffered the same fate with his Lampre team. Due to Lampre's better finish the Swiss is better placed in the GC at 1'11'' behind the pink jersey Vande Velde. Jérémy Roy is 1'43'' off of the leading pace.
157km - The two escapees are building up quite a nice little break-away. The lead is up to 7'56''.
167km - The leading duo have built a margin of 3'10''.
169km - Attack from the peloton: It's Jérémy Roy and David Loosli.
172km - The peloton rode 29 kilometres in the first hour of riding. The speed should pick up now that the day's biggest challenge has already been taken.
177km - The next 30 kilometres include alternating ascents and descents, but no categorised climbs.
179km - The peloton reache the summit of the Gratteri together. Emanuele Sella takes the Cat. 2 mountain points after crossing the summit first. The CSF Group rider wins them from Felix Cardenas (Barloworld) and Kevin Seeldrayers (Quickstep).
181km - Galparsoro is caught just shy of the summit! That's a shame.
187km - Dionisio Galparsoro Martinez scored his first two professional victories only three years ago. The Ataun native won the fourth stage of the Tour des Asturies in 2005, and then later that year won the third stage of the Tour de Hesse à Giessen. After leaving Euskaltel for Kaiku, he returned to his rookie team in 2007 and now looks set to take the first mountain points of this Tour of Italy....
189km - First attack of this Giro. The Basque climber Dioni Galparosoro (Euskatel)takes a 1'20'' lead over the peloton.
191km - The peloton is about to start climbing the first mountain of this year's race - the Category Two Gratteri. The other climb today is the Cat. 3 Polizzello at kilometre 112.
----- - Welcome to our LIVE text comments from the second stage of the Giro d'Italia a 207-km trip from Cefalù to Agrigente.