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Giro d'Italia - Chieti - Blockhaus

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  1. 0km - Thanks for following stage 17 of the Giro here on eurosport.yahoo.com. Join us for more live text comments on stage 18!

  2. 0km - Franco Pellizotti's win here ahs seen him move to third, just 2'00" back, with Ivan Basso fourth at 3'28". Carlos Sastre's bad day has seen him fall back to fifth overall, 3'30" off the pace.

  3. 0km - So Danilo di Luca moves to just 26 seconds of Denis Menchov with two decisive stages remaining. One of those is a mountain stage to Vesuvius on Friday, while Sunday's time-trial in Rome is the other.

  4. 0km - Just another four seconds back from Bruseghin's group were Rogers, Masciarelli, Leipheimer and a few others!

  5. 0km - Now Bruseghin leads the third group home, 1'54" back. Sastre, Armstrong and Simoni were in there too.

  6. 0km - Garzelli wins the sprint for second, with Di Luca in his wheel! Menchov finishes 4 or 5 seconds back!

  7. 0km - Menchov and Di Luca are fighting for the bonus seconds, and Di Luca and Garzelli are going clear over the final few metres!!!

  8. 0km - Victory for Pellizotti! He wins on Blockhaus!!

  9. 0.1km - Pellizotti enters the final 100 metres!

  10. 0.5km - Armstrong is now leading the third group up with Sastre on the back. the Spaniard has had a bad day today.

  11. 1km - It's very foggy at the top as Garzelli fights his way back onto the wheel of Di Luca and Menchov!

  12. 1km - Franco Pellizotti goes under the red kite! One kilometre to go for him!!

  13. 2km - Di Luca is grimacing in pain. Menchov's mouth opens just a little more. That dig has reduced Pellizotti's lead to 42 seconds.

  14. 3km - Di Luca attacks again!! Menchov follows once again, his face expressionless. Basso and Garzelli have been dropped.

  15. 3km - 51 seconds now from the pink jersey group up to Pellizotti! The Liquigas man is threatening Di Luca's second place. Meanwhile, Leipheimer has fallen to 1'53" back. It looks like his Giro is over.

  16. 3km - Pellizotti's victory is looking more and more certain. It's just a matter of how much time he takes now.

  17. 4km - Pellizotti is now extending his lead over the Di Luca group! It has gone up to 42 seconds now.

  18. 4km - Sastre is 1'18" back from Pellizotti, and losing ground! His third place is in danger.

  19. 4km - Basso, Di Luca, Garzelli and Menchov are still togetgher. Di Luca knows this climb like no other, but he seems to have met his match in the shape of Denis Menchov.

  20. 4km - Pellizotti is only 3'08" back from Menchov on the GC, just 49 seconds behind Sastre in third.

  21. 5km - Huge crowds here at Pellizotti goes under the 5 kilometre barrier. Di Luca knows that Pellizotti is looking like he will take away those bonus seconds that could prove crucial in the end.

  22. 6km - Pellizotti is looking good. If he is suffering, then he's masking it well. Obviously he's on his limit, but he certainly not carrying the face of a man who has gone too soon.

  23. 7km - Pellizotti's advantage is 28 seconds over the Di Luca/Menchov group and 58 seconds over the Sastre/Armstrong group. After a bad day on Monday, the Liquigas man is back on form. The rest day obviously did him good.

  24. 8km - Leiphimer is now 1'12" down we are hearing! The American is having another bad day, but this time he doesn't have Lance there to help him out. We haven't got pictures of him, so I can't say who is around him. If Brajkovic is there he will be able to pace him up.

  25. 8km - Sastre is still battling on gamely, with Armstrong, Simoni and Szmyd in his wheel.

  26. 8km - Garzelli has battled his way back to regain contact with the pink jersey group! Credit to him!

  27. 9km - Di Luca is gritting his teeth, but Menchov is looking comfortable right on his wheel, while Garzelli has fallen off the back.

  28. 9km - Armstrong has now tried to latch onto Sastre's wheel.

  29. 9km - 30 seconds is the gap between Pellizotti and the pink jersey group now.

  30. 9km - Saatre is now desperately trying to bridge the gap, with Simoni and Szmyd on his wheel. The pink jersey group is composed of just four men now - Di Luca, Menchov, Basso and Garzelli. Pellizotti remains on his own out front.

  31. 10km - The pink jersey group pass Armstrong now. He'll try to latch onto their wheel, though I don't think he'll be able to live with this tempo...and indeed he is dropped.

  32. 11km - Di Luca attacks!!! Garzelli is right onto his wheel, as is Denis Menchov. Leipheimer can't respond, Basso is struggling but keeps contact, and Sastre is nowhere to be seen!!

  33. 11km - Marzio Bruseghin now moves to the front and ups the pace.

  34. 11km - Ten Dam now moves to the front to pace the pink jersey group, while Armstrong is losing ground on Pellizotti. The gap between the two has gone from 8 seconds out to 20 seconds.

  35. 11km - Laurens Ten Dam is still in the pink jersey group to help out Menchov, Garzelli, Di Luca, Leipheimer, Szmyd, Siutsou, Simoni, Serpa and Masciarelli are in there among others.

  36. 11km - Szmyd has now fallen back to the pink jersey group. 22 seconds!! It's 22 seconds from Armstrong back to the pink jersey group, and Armstrong himself is 8 seconds behind Pellizotti.

  37. 12km - Armstrong isn't managing to close the gap on Pellizotti as of yet. We are yet to hear of time gaps from Armstrong back to the pink jersey group.

  38. 12km - Jose Serpa and Gilberto Simoni are gamely trying to hang on.

  39. 12km - Di Luca is at the head of the pink jersey group now, with Garzelli and Menchov on his wheel. Leipheimer is in this group too.

  40. 13km - Only about 30-35 riders left in the peloton now. The rest have been dropped.

  41. 13km - Arsmtrong is still trying to get across to the Liquigas duo of Pellizotti and Szmyd, spinning that low gear of his.

  42. 13km - Pellizotti has attacked too, and he is using Szmyd to apce him up....and Armstrong follows Pellizotti!

  43. 13km - Damiano Cunego has been dropped too, while the breakaway is gradually being eaten.

  44. 14km - The pace has picked up once again in the peloton and not even a man as strong as Szmyd can go clear. Sastre has moved to the front and a heapful of riders have fallen off the back.

  45. 15km - Sylvester Szmyd attacks from the peloton! He is a man who certainly can climb!

  46. 16km - Thomas Voeckler and Riccardo Chiarini have gone off the front along with Felix Cardenas!

  47. 16km - Cervelo and LPR both still at the front of the pack working for Sastre and Di Luca respectively.

  48. 17km - Felix Cardenas of Barloworld moves to the front of the breakaway as the gradient starts to steepen on the Blockhaus.

  49. 18km - I'm happy to say Philip Deignan is back on his bike and chasing back to the peloton. His collar bone seems fine, which is what is generally the first thing to go when a rider falls on his shoulder.

  50. 19km - Just 1'05" is the gap from the leaders to the peloton now.

  51. 20km - They'er approaching the start of the climb to the Blockhaus now...and one of the Cervelo boys has fallen!! He's on his knees in pain! It's thje Irishman Philip Deignan!! he saw his front wheel slip away on the curve.

  52. 22km - Mathieu Sprick has a puncture in the peloton.

  53. 23km - Cervelo's work is showing its effect. The gap has fallen from 2'55" to 2'05" in not a lot of distance at all!

  54. 25km - Carlos Sastre's Cervelo team has moved to the front now to take up the chase.

  55. 27km - Extremely foggy at the top of the Blockhaus today, though the crowds are out in force for Di Luca!

  56. 27km - In the breakaway's favour is the fact that they haven't had 150 kilometres in their legs before taking on the final climb of the day, so will take on the climb a bit fresher than breakaways generally do.

  57. 29km - 2'48" is the gap. The escapees must know by now they will not be able to stay clear until the top of the climb. Home favourite Di Luca certainly wants both the stage as well as those bonus seconds.

  58. 30km - The breakaway are now on the short climb to bivio per Pretoro now. After that we'll have the short descent, before thr climb to Blockhaus begins in earnest.

  59. 33km - LPR and Rabobank still at the head of the peloton in that order, keeping the tempo pretty high.

  60. 38km - Don't forget to have a vote in our poll of who has been the most disappointing rider of the Giro so far. You'll find a certain American team leader's name in there after he fizzled on the Petrano on Monday. Eurosport Poll

  61. 39km - The average speed after the first hour of racing is a reasonably quick 41km/h.

  62. 39km - The breakaway have now gone over the top of the small hill at Villamagna, and their lead has gornw to 3'00".

  63. 40km - The Acqua e Sapone boys Marzoli and Palumbo are doing an awful lot of work in the breakaway, while the back of the peloton gets caught in a bottleneck in the middle of a small village.

  64. 41km - Rabonbank are sat right behind LPR at the front of the peloton. A lot of tense, nervous faces in there.

  65. 43km - A fall in the peloton, and Andriy Grivko has found himself in a ditch! He looks fine, and the peloton wasn't travelling particularly quickly at the time, so more of a bottle neck and a lot of pushing and bumping than anything else. Grivko is soon back on his feet, and his ISD team-mate Dmitri Grabovskyy is there to tow him back to the peloton.

  66. 46km - 2'20" now is the latest gap.

  67. 50km - The breakaway have extended their lead a little. 1'45" is their advantage now. LPR have eased off the gas a little, perhaps content to keep them up the road, albeit on a tight leash.

  68. 52km - Well, the one flat(ish) part of today's stage is over, and the breakaway are now on the short, non-classified climb to Villamagna. After the top, there is a short descent, before the road eases gradually up to bivio per Pretoro.

  69. 56km - Just 1'00" advantage for our leaders now. At this rate they will soon be swallowed.

  70. 61km - Predictably, Riccardo Chiarini is doing absolutely nothing in the lead group as his LPR team continue to chase down and close the gap on the leaders.

  71. 66km - The chasing pack hae now been swallowed by this fast-moving peloton.

  72. 70km - Meanwhile, LPR are pounding away at the front of the peloton. They clearly don't want anyone to get too much time on this stage, epecially if Danilo Di Luca can win the stage and take some the valuable time bonus that would go with it.

  73. 71km - In the chasing pack are Alexander Efimkin (AG2R), Valerio Agnoli (Liquigas), Kevin Hulsmans (Quick Step), Nikita Eskov (Katusha) and Anders Lund (Saxo Bank). They are now 1'00" behind the Voeckler group.

  74. 72km - Along with Voeckler are Giuseppe Palumbo (Acqua e Sapone), Giovanni Visconti (LPR), Felix Cardenas (Barloworld), Mauro Facci (Quick Step), Ruggero Marzoli (Acqua e Sapone), Matteo Bono (Lampre), Riccardo Chiarini (LPR), Gonzalo Rabunal and Delio Fernandez Cruz (Xacobeo).

  75. 73km - Another 8-9 riders have gone with the Bouygues man, and there' another chasing pack of 6 jut behind them. Meanwhile, the peloton are 1'25" back.

  76. 74km - An attack - from Thomas Voeckler!

  77. 74km - A rear-wheel puncture for Katusha's Luca Mazzanti. He drops back to collect a new wheel from his team car.

  78. 74km - Danilo di Luca could have the explosive edge over his rivals if they are all together going into the final few kilometres, and he certainly knows this climb lik the back of his hand, as he uses it frequently during training. However, I have a sneaky feeling about Stefano Garzelli. He's leading the mountains classification, is far enough behind on the GC not to worry the favourites, so could launch an attack from afar. And, as we saw at the long time-trial a few days ago, is strong riding on his own up the climbs.

  79. 76km - An interesting stage today. Carlos Sastre has proved his climbing ability time and again, as have all the general classification favourites though the unusual nature of this stage makes it a difficult one to predict.

  80. 14:12 - The race commissar gives the green light as we pass the 0 kilometre mark and we're underway!

  81. 14:05 - The riders are rolling out of Chieti behind the safety car now.

  82. 13:50 - Whichever the case, one thing is clear: if Menchov is wearing pink ahead of the final 15 kilometre time-trial in Rome, then neither Sastre nor Di Luca will be able to dislodge him. Leipheimer may be the strongest in the final time-trial, but his heavy losses in yesterday's stage may well have put paid to his chances.

  83. 13:45 - So, will Di Luca and Sastre be able to take the pink jersey of Denis Menchov's shoulders today? Or is it simply a little too short? Will the stage to Vesuvius be a better bet for them?

  84. 13:40 - Even the stage profile to the start of the climb is almost all uphill, save for two short downhill sections at Villamagna and bivio per Pretoro.

  85. 13:40 - The climb to Blockhaus is 18 kilometres long at 6.9%, and it's a fairly steady gradient all the way up. The summit at Blockhaus is 1674 metres, and given that they are at just three metres above sea level earlier in the stage, you can see just what hard work these relatively short 79 kilometres will be.

  86. 13:35 - Just a short bash on the banjo today, as the legendary David Duffield would say. 79 kilometres, but almost every single one of them is uphill.

  87. 13:30 - Welcome to eurosport.yahoo.com's live text coverage of the 17th stage of the Giro d'Italia from Chieti to Blockhaus.