CYCLING Live

Giro d'Italia - *Potenza-Peschici

Live Comments

----- - The peloton comes in about 11 minutes off pace, thanks for following our LIVE coverage and join us tomorrow for full comments on the first mountain stage of this year's race!
0km - Visconti actually takes over the pink jersey with Russ in second!!
0km - Priamo leads out from a long way and Perez has nothing!! Matteo Priamo of CSF Group claims victory in stage six at eight seconds in front of Alan Pérez (Euskaltel-Euskadi). Backstedt's bid fails, as the rest of the break-away just trickle home now with McCartney way at the back at one minute and nine seconds off pace.
1km - Priamo doing all of the work now, and Perez asking for some help.... And not getting it.
2km - Perez and Priamo are sharing the work pretty well, and the gap to Backstedt is 38 seconds with the Swede beginning to suffer. It looks like it's going to be Perez and Priamo on this final ascent to the line....
4km - Big Swede Magnus Backstedt is trying to bridge the gap!
4km - Under five K to go for the two leaders, and the gap is still around 20 seconds....
6km - The margin is up to 19 seconds. The peloton of course, are safely 12 minutes off pace.
8km - Jason McCartney starts to lead the counter-attack, as the gap to the two leaders is now 15 seconds. That won't likely be enough unless they can build on that margin.
10km - Perez has joined Priamo now, but their fellow escapees are not that far behind......
11km - Priamo goes off on his own now, and Visconti leads the chase.
12km - A few stunted attacks at the front of the break-away, with nobody gaining any real traction.
15km - The 11-man break-away that will contest victory today includes Alan Pérez (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Carlos José Ochoa (Diquigiovanni), Nikolai Trusov (Tinkoff), Jason McCartney (CSC), Magnus Backstedt (Slipstream), Daniele Nardello (Diquigiovanni), Giovanni Visconti (Quick Step), Francesco Gavazzi (Lampre), Matthias Russ (Gerolsteiner), Maxim Iglinsky (Astana) and Matteo Priamo (CSF Group).
18km - The lead has dipped a bit to 12 minutes, as Caisse D'Epargne and Liquigas are now riding a bit harder at the front of the peloton to try to make sure that the final gap is not out of hand.
20km - Visconti, the Italian champion, is another serious contender to win today's stage.
23km - Matthias Russ (Gerolsteiner), the virtual pink jersey and likely maglia rose at the end of the day, is in his third professional season. In 2006 he won the best young rider's jersey at the Regio Tour.
25km - It was obviously part of Liguigas' strategy to surrender the pink jersey today so as not to be forced to defend it for the entirety of the first half of this three-week long race.
27km - The truth is that even if the gap remains what it is, none of these 11 riders are really a threat to take the final pink jersey. Though, some could contend for the top-ten.
29km - A possible danger man in this group is American Jason McCartney (CSC), who took a stage in the Vuelta last year and owns three Best Climber jerseys from the Tour de Georgia.
30km - As the peloton cruises along the beautiful Italian coastline, passing the beach village of Bosco della Risega, the lead shrinks marginally. Fortunately, the clouds have gone and there are only blue skies ahead!
35km - Today's stage winner should be decided on the uphill finale, a climb to the finish with a 7,9% gradient. The next 35 kilometres will also determine our next pink jersey.
45km - Barloworld is pushing the peloton now. Pellizotti's Liquigas team, who have been doing most of the work over the past couple of days, finally seem content to give up the pink jersey. As the lead will almost definitely change hands today.
50km - With the 50 kilometres left to ride, the gap is still large: 14'40''.
55km - Priamo, Visconti and Nardello try an attack out of the lead pack, but the three Italians are quickly caught!
60km - The gap has stabilised around 15 minutes, and it looks like this break-away has a good chance of going the distance.....
77km - We're expecting a cloudy ride into Peschici, but hopefully no rain.
80km - We've had two men quit the race this morning, respectively at kilometres 35 and 50 : De Werrt (Cofidis) and Poitschke (Milram).
80km - Average speed after three hours of riding: 47,300 km.
85km - The 11-man break-away includes (Alan Pérez (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Carlos José Ochoa (Diquigiovanni), Nikolai Trusov (Tinkoff), Jason McCartney (CSC), Magnus Backstedt (Slipstream), Daniele Nardello (Diquigiovanni), Giovanni Visconti (Quick Step), Francesco Gavazzi (Lampre), Matthias Russ (Gerolsteiner), Maxim Iglinsky (Astana) and Matteo Priamo (CSF Group))..... The peloton is 15'28'' off pace.
88km - In the general classification, the best placed in this escape group is Matthias Russ (Gerolsteiner). The German is 56th, at 1'39'' behind the pink jersey Franco Pellizotti. That means, with the 15'28'' gap over the peloton, Russ is the virtual maglia rose.
90km - At the intermediate sprint at Manfredonia, it's Visconti (Quickstep) who takes the points in front of Gavazzi (Lampre) and Priamo (CSF group).
100km - About a 12 minute gap for the escapees as they approach the feed zone at Manfredonia.
110km - It's looking good for the escapees. 8'40'' lead and the peloton is yet to react....
130km - The gap grows (5'40'') Are we going to see another successful break-away like the one that worked so well together yesterday? This group has more men than yesterday, and that could be the difference (11 men as opposed to 5).
140km - The counter attack is easily caught by the peloton. The break-away, meanwhile, has built the lead up to 4'22''. The pace for the first two hours has been very fast, with an average speed of 48,800 km/h.
150km - The 11 leaders have a one minute advantage over the counter-attack, who in turn have 40 seconds over the peloton.
150km - Mandri is forced to abandon this race. Behind the escapees, however, a counter-attack is forming.
163km - British Eurosport's LIVE television coverage of today's stage will start from 14:00 UK time and as always Sean Kelly and David Harmon will be fielding your questions and select the best to answer on air. To ask our commentators a question, just click on the "Forum: Ask Sean and David" link on our cycling page.
164km - Mandri (AG2R) crashes and falls out of the escape group ! Only 11 men left in the break-away now.
168km - THE BREAK-AWAY: Mandri (AG2R), Perez-Lezaun (Euskaltel), Ochoa (Diquigiovanni), Inglinsky (Astana), Priamo (CSF Group), Russ (Gerolsteiner), Gavazzi (Lampre), Visconti (Quickstep), Nardello (Diquigiovanni), Backstedt (Slipstream), McCartney (CSC), Trussov (Tinkoff)
170km - We join the race already in progress after about 60 kilometres of riding : 12 escapees have a margin of 1'20'' over the peloton. Remember, a break-away produced yesterday's winner Pavel Brutt.
231km - The uphill finish today is very well suited to the punchier sprinters, like world champion Bettini (Quickstep), Ricco (Saunier-Duval) and Rebellin (Gerolsteiner). Not to mention Maglia Rosa Pelllizotti (Liquigas) and last year's winner Di Luca (LPR Brakes)...
231km - Scotland's David Millar on his frustrating chain malfunction that caused him to toss his bike over the railing in the final kilometre yesterday: "I was so motivated to get the win that I was just really angry at that moment. I will try again another day, not tomorrow, but another time. I really want to win a stage in this Giro."
231km - Before being shortened this stage was originally meant to be the longest of the 2008 Giro (265 km). We would have had to go back to 1989 to find a longer stage (275 km between Cosenza and Potenza).
231km - Welcome to our LIVE text comments from this sixth stage of the Giro D'Italia! Originally meant to be 260-km long, this stage from Potenza to Peschici was shortened by organisers to 231-km. The start is set for 10:15 local time.