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Giro d'Italia - *Urbania - Cesena

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0km - Pablo Lastras took second of course, from Baliani, who upon looking at the replay had his back tyre tipped in the air by a loose cobble stone! Laurent Mangel (AG2R La Mondiale) takes fifth just in front of Veikkanen. No major changes in the GC. Thanks for following our LIVE coverage and join us tomorrow for stage 13!
0km - At nearly exactly four minutes behind today's winner, sprinter Daniele Bennati leads the peloton in to add 10 bonus points to his race for the sprinter jersey.
0km - Baliani hits the deck in the final 750 metres!! Pablo Lastras manages to avoid the crash victim by swerving around him, but Bertolini takes his chance and launches his attack to claim his first Major Tour victory in a 15-year career! Phenomenal finish!
1km - One kilometre to go.....
3km - Pablo Lastras, Baliani and Bertolini are all feigning attacks and counter-attacks......
6km - Di Luca goes off again on this final minor climb!! And again he's followed by all of the big favourites!!
6km - Dall'Antonia is about 12 seconds back now as Baliani is really pushing hard at the front of that lead group. Meanwhile about five kilometres further back down the rode, Italian Marco Pinotti has broken out of the regrouped peloton.
8km - The two former leaders are one minute off of the pace of the now leading trio, as on this final climb Tiziano Dall'Antonia has been dropped. The peloton still more than four minutes back.
10km - Under 10km to go!!
15km - David Millar has joined that elite first chase group, which is now about four minutes off of the lead pace. Today's winner will certainly come from the break-away.
15km - Only 15km to go for our four lead riders!!
19km - Laurent Mangel (AG2R La Mondiale) and Jussi Veikkanen (Française des Jeux) are now about 19 seconds behind their four former co-leaders.
20km - The peloton is about 2'23" behind the lead group, as former winner Paolo Savoldelli tries to make a move!! Ricco and Contador do well to stay with him, and they will likely catch Mauricio Ardila, who had tried a counter-attack just a few kilometres back.
20km - Pablo Lastras tries another attack at the front, but his co-escapees do well to stay on the wheel.
25km - Up front Frenchman Laurent Mangel has been dropped from the lead group.....
25km - Forget what we said about crashes!! A major one has taken out the green jersey Sella, the pink jersey Visconti, Astana challenger and US national champion Levi Leipheimer, and great mountain goat Leonardo Piepoli!! The sun has not yet done it's work in drying these roads on what is turning out to be a dangerous Cat. 3 Sorrivoli climb.
29km - Klöden, Di Luca and Van den Broeck stay with the Ricco, but Tour of Spain champion Denis Menchov falls behind.
29km - Contador, Klöden and Di Luca stay with Ricco. Simoni and Pellizotti are also there.... But Riccardo Ricco tries again!
29km - Riccardo Ricco' (Saunier Duval) makes a move! He is ninth in the GC at 8'32" behind Visconti, who is starting to struggle.
29km - The sun has come out now, and we are seeing far fewer crashes.
30km - Bertolini is very much pushing the lead group now.....
31km - Bosisio is 3'32" behind the leaders while the chase group is 4'35" back.
34km - Paolo Bettini suffers a puncture.
35km - Lastras is quickly caught by his co-escapees, who don't have to do much work to close the gap.
37km - On the descent towards S. Paola, Pablo Lastras launches an attack. I somehow doubt that he will manage to do this alone.
40km - The gap is up to five minutes now.
45km - The gap between the leaders and the peloton is only four minutes now, making it possible for the main bunch to catch the escapees.
47km - The new composition of the lead group : Laurent Mangel (AG2R La Mondiale), Pablo Lastras (Caisse d'Epargne), Tiziano Dall'Antonia (CSF), Fortunato Baliani (CSF), Jussi Veikkanen (Française des Jeux) and Alessandro Bertolini (Diquigiovanni).
49km - Baliani makes the junction with the five leaders!
50km - Quick Step pushes the pink jersey group as Visconti attempts to make some ground on the escape.
53km - Through the trees we see a hard fall for Bosisio! He is back up and being towed back towards Baliani by his team car..... We'll see how much that crash impacts his bid.
57km - The five men make their descent towards S. Paola as the rain falls and Bosisio eyes the pink jersey.
64km - Bosisio and Balini find themselves 2'15" off of the lead pace and 2'21 in front of the main chase group.
69km - AVERAGE SPEED AFTER FOUR HOURS OF RIDING : 33,400 km/h.
71km - Bosisio (LPR), the stage seven winner and third overall in the GC, tries an attack! Fortunato Baliani (Panaria) follows him out of that group of favourites.
72km - Included in that 21-man group are Gilberto Simoni (Diquigiovanni), Riccardo Ricco' (Saunier Duval), Andreas Klöden (Astana), Danilo Di Luca (LPR Brakes), Alberto Contador (Astana).
75km - 5'40" between the five leaders and the 21 chasers as the Perticara climb is set to begin.
83km - A giant Bart Simpson float, circa Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade 1991, is leading the peloton into the village of Maciano. It's good to see that organisers are keeping with the times.
84km - And another Liquigas crash! Pellizotti this time! Maybe there's something wrong with the team's tyres.
85km - Another crash, for another Liguigas rider! Andrea Noe (Liquigas) was in the chase group, but he also hit the barrier hard.....
85km - Behind the five leaders a group of 21 chasers have gathered.
85km - Dall'Antonia and Bertolini quickly return into the escape bunch.
86km - More crashes in the lead group... d'Alessandro Bertolini (Diquigiovanni) and Tiziano Dall'Antonia (Panaria) hit the deck!
87km - A crash for Emanuele Sella (Panaria) with Rujano also getting in the mix. The Venezuelan gets off lightly, though, escaping the fall. These conditions are horrible.
88km - Pablo Lastras had a mechanical problem on the descent, and is losing more and more time on the five leaders.
90km - Between the "Contador group" and the "Visconti group", there is another interesting group at 6'12" back including, most notably, world champion Paolo Bettini (Quick Step).
90km - The pink jersey group reached the summit of the Cat. 1 climb at 7'12" behind the leaders.
91km - Klöden, Contador, Van den Broeck, Sella, Savoldelli, Leipheimer headline that lead chase group we were talking about, as Astana look to do some damage today.
91km - The pink jersey Giovanni Visconti (Quick Step) is struggling over the top, two minutes behind the lead chasers.
92km - Over the summit, the front of the peloton is 5'08" off pace.
92km - Bertolini is first over the summit, taking the ten points from Lastras and Dall'Antonia.
92km - The leaders pass the summit of the Monte Carpegna. At about 2km from the summit the peloton, led by that elite group, is 5'18" off pace. The rain is really pouring down now, making for horrendous conditions on this climb.
95km - Average speed after three hours of riding : 34,300 km/h.
96km - As the main GC contenders up the pace on the Monte Carpegna the gap drops to 6'40".
97km - Riccardo Ricco' (Saunier Duval), Danilo Di Luca (LPR), Alberto Contador (Astana) and Gilberto Simoni (Diquigiovanni) all take the lead at the front of the peloton on this climb.
97km - Under the pressure of LPR and Danilo Di Luca, the peloton ups the pace as the ascent up Monte Carpegna begins.
98km - A big abandonee to report, as mountain goat JUAN MAURICIO SOLER (Barloworld), who is down at 40th in the GC (13'58" behind Visconti) ends his Giro. Belgian Rik Verbrugghe also quits on the ascent up the Monte Carpegna.
100km - The peloton speeds through the feed zone and the gap shrinks: 8'45".
101km - The leaders are 10km from the summit of Monte Carpegna.
102km - Bertolini gets it sorted out quickly and works his way back into the lead bunch.
104km - A mechanical problem for Alessandro Bertolini (Diquigiovanni) drops him out of the lead group.
105km - The lead is up a little more: 9'20".
119km - 9'10" for the escape group, who again have started to work together to build that gap.
125km - The gap is still at 8'15", while at the San Marino summit it was 7'38".
125km - Average speed after two hours: 36,400 km/h.
135km - As we said, things have steadied a bit. About three kilometres from the San Marino climb, the pink jersey group is 8'05" off of the lead pace.
138km - The gap steadies some at 8'10".
144km - The escapees show no signs of slowing down as the gap continues to climb, reaching 7'15" now.
149km - The gap keeps growing. Up to 5'25" now.
150km - So our actual lead group is: Laurent Mangel (AG2R La Mondiale), Pablo Lastras (Caisse d'Epargne), Tiziano Dall'Antonia (Panaria), Jussi Veikkanen (Française des Jeux) and Alessandro Bertolini (Diquigiovanni).
151km - The gap is up to 2'40". A correction is in order, however, as Tiziano Dall'Antonia (Panaria) and not Alan Perez Lazaun (Euskaltel) is the fifth man in the escape.
153km - Another abandonee to report: Mauro Santambrogio, who crashed at the 26th kilometre, will be taking no further part in this year's Tour of Italy.
154km - The average speed in the first hour : 42,700 km/h.
155km - The peloton is 1'05" off of the lead pace as the attack group are working incredibly well together, and that gap should climb as the escapees motor towards Montescudo.
156km - The GAP is 42 seconds for the five escapees.
157km - Here we go. A group of escapees launch a joint-attack, as Laurent Mangel (AG2R La Mondiale), Pablo Lastras (Caisse d'Epargne), Alan Perez (Euskaltel), Jussi Veikkanen (Française des Jeux) and Alessandro Bertolini (Diquigiovanni) take off. Now we're talkin'
164km - A technical bug for world champion Paolo Bettini. The Italian Quick Step is experiencing some sort of yet-to-be-determined mechanical problem.
166km - Scotland's David Millar (Saunier Duval) launches a counter-attack and catches the Spaniard....
168km - After two kilometres the Spaniard is still alone in his efforts, but has managed to build an 18 second advantage over the peloton.
170km - And this is a good one, as JOAQUIN ROGRIGUEZ OLIVER (Caisse d'Epargne) gains a bit of traction and busts out of the peloton. Well monitor this attack closely.
172km - The falls spur on the peloton, as we are witnessing a flurry of attacks.
173km - We've got our first crash of the day. Mauro Santambrogio (Lampre-Fondital) goes down and is having trouble getting up. He is not the only one to fall on the descent towards Cà Gallo as Sergei Klimov (Tinkoff) suffers a similar fate.
180km - Euskaltel moves to the front of the peloton as the bunch leaves Urbino.
185km - The peloton reaches Urbino. Aside from AG2R, it's going to be up to Tinkoff and Rabobank to take control of the peloton. We've yet to see a successful attack.
195km - Three men did not start today's stage: Italians Francesco Bellotti (Barloworld) and Andrea Moletta (Gerolsteiner) along with Belgian Geert Steurs (Silence-Lotto). For a full start list click on our Giro D'Italia section!
199km - And they're off! The official start was given at 11h55 local time.
----- - Welcome to Eurosport's LIVE coverage of the 199km 12th stage of the Giro D'Italia from Urbania to Cesena with text comments starting from 10:55 BST.