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Giro d'Italia - Innsbruck - Chiavenna

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  1. 0km - Bertolini makes his dash for victory and goes through the final roundabout ahead but Brutt pulls him back before Gent Wevelgem winner BOASSON HAGEN OF NORWAY springs clear to take the victory. Grivko was sixth, 14 seconds back, just in front of the main bunch.

  2. 1km - The leading five go under the Flamme Rouge and they will contest the stage victory.

  3. 3km - So the GC timings will be taken at this point and it's a decent sized lead bunch. It seems all the protagonists for the pink jersey have got down safely.

  4. 5km - 30 seconds back to Grivko and 35 to the peloton.

  5. 7km - The leading quintet are working well together and are 30 seconds ahead of Grivko and 40 seconds ahead of the main bunch.

  6. 10km - Bertolini, Brutt, Hunter, Boasson Hagen and Vigano are now being chased by Andriy Grivko of Milram. 30 seconds is the gap.

  7. 12km - Bertolini has been joined by Brutt, Hunter (Barloworld), Edvald Boasson Hagen (Columbia) and Davide Vigano (Fuji-Servetto). They hold a 26 second lead over the Liquigas led main bunch.

  8. 15km - Bertolini's lead over Brutt and Robert Hunter is just 16 seconds with the peloton at 27 seconds.

  9. 20km - This could be two stages in a row for the Venezuelan-registered UCI Professional Continental team based in Italy after Scarponi's win yesterday. But the gap has dropped to 48 seconds as Pavel Brutt goes off in pursuit of the leader.

  10. 25km - A succession of switchbacks on this descent and Bertolini is throwing caution to the wind. He has opened up a 62 second lead over a Liquigas-led peloton that is taking things cautiously.

  11. 30km - Who is the bravest or craziest on this descent? Italian Alessandro Bertolini (Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni) is an early candidate as he goes off the front.

  12. 35km - Tyler Farrar of Garmin took the points at the top of the Maloja, now hold on to your hats for this steep, arduous descent in the wet!

  13. 40km - GRUPPO COMPATTO!! The escape is over just before the summit of the climb.

  14. 45km - Due to the poor conditions, the official timing point for the general classification will be taken with 3km to go.

  15. 50km - Facci was first at the TV sprint, the breakaway quartet are just hanging out in front of the peloton by a shade under two minutes.

  16. 55km - To give an idea of the conditions, Di Luca has a full black lycra bodysuit under his pink jersey. The temperature is barely in double figures and most of the Lampre team are just putting their capes on. Weather report

  17. 60km - The chasing pack have cut the advantage of the breakaway riders to two minutes.

  18. 65km - The peloton are headed towards St Moritz, the exclusive resort town in the Engadine valley in Switzerland. St Moritz is considered the oldest and one of the most famous winter resorts in the world. Due to its favorable location residents enjoy over 300 days of sunshine a year. However today is not one of them.

  19. 70km - Italy have dominated this race, winning 65 of the previous 91 editions. Giro history

  20. 75km - The advantage has now dropped under three minutes for our leaders.

  21. 80km - The Giro d'Italia is LIVE NOW on your PC via the Eurosport Player. Coverage will commence on British Eurosport (Sky 410 / Virgin Media 521) as soon as the Amelie Mauresmo match ends in Madrid. Click here to subscribe

  22. 85km - The gap is now under four minutes.

  23. 90km - Jesus Del Nero Montes of Fuji-Servetto has abandoned the race.

  24. 90km - The Giro d'Italia is LIVE at 2pm on British Eurosport (Sky 410 / Virgin Media 521) and is also available on your PC via the Eurosport Player. Click here to subscribe

  25. 95km - Thomas Rohregger (Milram) is the sole Austrian in the Giro this year and has missed the break on both days when the race has passed through his country. LPR's Gabriele Bosisio is from Lecco and is the local boy who will be looking to contest the finish.

  26. 100km - Davis seemed to have rugby on his mind this morning when he twittered: "Morning all from Austria, Dragons vs Bulldogs tonight, Bulldogs in form will be a tough one! Sore legs after yesty's effort!"

  27. 105km - Milram at the front of the bunch and the lead of the four escapees is coming down quickly now, just five minutes is the gap. Several sprinters including Allan Davis made it to yesterday's finish despite the conky route. Maybe a small bunch spint today for those brave enough on the descent?

  28. 110km - Levi Leipheimer is the man you are backing to win this year's race. Poll Results

  29. 115km - Catch up with the best images from the race. Giro Gallery

  30. 120km - 194 riders started today's stage. We lost Matthias Russ, Christian Vande Velde, Francisco Perez and David García on stages two to five. Start List

  31. 125km - The only member of the team not to join the protest was Andrey Zeits, who is from Astana's base nation Kazakhstan. Full story

  32. 130km - Lance Armstrong and all but one of his Astana team-mates have protested at unpaid salaries by blanking out the sponsor's name on their shirts today.

  33. 135km - 43.600km/h was the pace in the second hour and with Barloworld and Garmin on the front of the peloton, the lead of our four leaders has dropped from a peak of 9:14 to just under seven and a half minutes.

  34. 140km - A 4km stretch of flat follows before the finish in Chiavenna which is located about 100km north of Milan and 16km from the tip of Lake Como.

  35. 145km - From the top of the Passo del Maloja, the riders face a steep descent which drops 1400 metres in 23 kilometres.

  36. 150km - And then they summit at the Passo del Maloja with 36km to go for today's mountains classification.

  37. 155km - The course passes through the Swiss resort town of St Moritz with 53km to go for today's TV sprint.

  38. 160km - The riders are climbing 1200 metres over the opening 190 kilometers.

  39. 165km - Chris Horner has been blogging on how he was collared by the vampires after yesterday's stage: "Immediately after the finish, I learned that I was one of the lucky riders who had been selected for random drug testing, so I spent the next hour hanging out with the drug testers while I waited to have to pee. A fun way to finish a LONG day on the bike!"

  40. 170km - Johan Bruyneel has been explaining Astana's financial problems in his column for De Telegraaf: "I am confident that this team will be at the start of the Tour de France 2009 in Monaco: maybe under another flag or with another sponsor name, but we will be there. At the moment we are negotiating with some marketing agencies and global companies. When the news was leaked that there were payment troubles in our team, a lot of companies got in contact with me."

  41. 175km - Liquigas manager Roberto Amadio says Ivan Basso is ready to challenge for the Giro. See the video

  42. 180km - Klimov is a former track rider who won the points race at the World Cup meet at the velodrome in Manchester in 2007. He rode for Tinkoff before joining Katusha this year.

  43. 185km - Facci was born on May 11, 1982 in Vicenza and rode with Fassa Bortolo for four years, beginning in 2002 as a stagiaire. He joined Barloworld for the 2006 season then joined Quick Step-Innergetic in 2007.

  44. 190km - Isaichev is a 23-year-old Russian who turned pro last year and is currently 159th on GC.

  45. 195km - Huzarski is a 26-year-old Pole who won the Szlakiem Grodow Piastowskich last year and has ridden for local teams before this year.

  46. 200km - Today's stage begged for a breakaway and a breakaway it has received. Bartosz Huzarski (ISD), Vladimir Isaichev (Xacobeo Galicia), Mauro Facci (Quick Step) and Serguei Klimov (Katusha) attacked from the start and have already built up a nine-minute lead over the peloton.

  47. 205km - Levi Leipheimer twittered on yesterday's stage: "We had a fast downhill in the middle of the stage and we were comparing top speeds, heard JJ Haedo hit 117kph!! That's 72.7mph to be exact. Wow, the last 30km today was crazy! The peloton was not happy."

  48. 210km - The stage sees a steady climb to the summit of the Maloja pass, at 1815 meters above sea level. and then a high-speed descent and according to Armstrong is like yesterday's finale. Of Thursday's stage, the Texan said: "The last 30 kilometres were the craziest I've seen in my life. A long stretch, a quick descent - at 80km/h - and then a tight circuit. It's a cycling course, not a Moto GP. At one stage we even reached 110 (kilometres) an hour. It's crazy!"

  49. 215km - Di Luca, the 2007 champion, holds a five-second lead over second-placed Swede Thomas Lovkvist with his Columbia team-mate Michael Rogers still in third at 36 seconds.A quartet of arguably more probable Giro winners - Levi Leipheimer, Denis Menchov, Ivan Basso and Carlos Sastre - sit in fourth to seventh places and that is unlikely to change given today's route.

  50. 220km - The top 20 on GC stay unchanged but Lance Armstrong and Bradley Wiggins both lost time and dropped down the overall list. Armstrong finished 73rd on Thursday and currently occupies 25th place overall, 4:13 behind the pink jersey of Danilo Di Luca. General Classification

  51. 225km - Yesterday's stage was won by Michele Scarponi (Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni-Androni Giocattoli), the sole survivor of a day-long break. This is how he did it.

  52. 230km - Check out the conditions for today's stage. Weather report

  53. 235km - The Giro came to Innsbruck in 1988 as a finishing town when Franco Vona won the stage.

  54. 240km - Innsbruck is the capital city of the federal state of Tyrol in western Austria. It is located in the Inn Valley at the junction with the Wipptal which provides access to the Brenner Pass. Located in the broad valley between high mountains, it is an internationally-renowned winter sports centre, and hosted the 1964 and 1976 Winter Olympics. It is to host the first Winter Youth Olympics in 2012.

  55. 244km - Friday's seventh stage of the Giro d'Italia begins in Innsbruck at 11:00 local time and takes the riders back into Italy where they will arrive at Chiavenna after 244km of up-and-down terrain.

 

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