Giro d'Italia stage 15 LIVE: Penultimate chance for the sprinters as week two comes to a close
Milan hosts a pan-flat 157km sprint stage
130km to go
It is a very steady pace in the peloton now as the four riders out front look to increase the gap.
Jerseys:
Pink - Vingegaard (TVL)
Purple - Narváez (UAD)
Blue - Vingegaard (TVL)*
White - Eulálio (TBV)
*Worn by - Van der Lee (EFE)
140km
The sprinters teams start to work with Soudal-Quickstep, Lidl-Trek and Unibet Rose Rockets all coming to the front after 20 minutes of racing to start setting the pace for their main men with 2'04" up to the four rider break.
Alpecin-Premier Tech no longer have their big name sprinter in Kaden Groves after he abandoned suffering from his injuries from the crash on stage 2. However, they do have a sprinter, Jenson Plowright. The Australian criterium champion will be very familiar with the style of racing at the finish in Milan today.
Alpecin-Premier Tech are being blocked in by the sprinters teams. They really want to get into the breakaway with Danish time trialist Johan Price-Pejtersen to make this breakaway have some slim chance, but they can't get close to going on the attack.
More attacks in the peloton with Alpecin-Premier Tech trying. However, he has three Soudal-Quickstep riders and an NSN rider on his wheel as Enric Mas (Movistar) closes it down.
Bardiani CSF-7 Sabre and Alpecin-Premier Tech tried to counter in the peloton but they had the door firmly shut in front of them to stop them moving.
Martin Marcellusi (Bardiani CSF-7 Sabre), Mattia Bais (Polti-Visit Malta), Alessandro Tonelli (Polti-Visit Malta) and Fredrik Dversnes (Uno-X Mobility) are clear with 18" on the peloton.
The same teams try to make another break but nothing is doing. The sprinters teams don't want more than four riders who now get away.
Soudal-Quickstep, Lidl-Trek and NSN immediately go to work to bring that back. Too many riders in that one.
157km to go
Racing begins with attacks coming immediately from Bardiani CSF-7 Sabre, Uno-X Mobility, Alpecin-Premier Tech and Polti-Visit Malta.
Just 1km of neutral left.
The race is actually late starting at the moment. They are 3km away from the flag being waved.
The riders have rolled out and are on their way to the race start proper.
Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) is fully decked out in pink today for his very first day in the leaders jersey...
The riders are due to start the neutralised zone any minute now.
Will today's finish in Milan be perfect for Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) to take his first win of the race?
Here is the above view of what the stage looks like today with four laps of the finishing circuit in Milan.
Rider presentation is well underway in Voghera with this man, Dylan Groenewegen (Unibet Rose Rockets) will be desperate to go for the win today, he has already gone so close but only has two real chances left in this race...
It is going to be another hot day for the riders with the temperatures set to reach over 30°c. Staying cool will be vital today.
Onto today and you couldn't find a more different stage profile to yesterday's stage than today's. It is completely pancake flat with a few laps around the city of Milan after the halfway point.
Before looking at the final stage of week two, let's take a look back at what happened yesterday in the first really major mountain test of the race...
>>> Giro d'Italia: Jonas Vingegaard outclimbs rivals to solo to stage 14 victory and seize race lead
Bongiorno and welcome to live updates of the 15th stage at this year's Giro d'Italia.
Jhonatan Narváez (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) took over the points classification yesterday thanks to him taking maximum points at the intermediate sprint. He leads Paul Magnier (Soudal-QuickStep) by one point heading into today's sprint stage, so the Frenchman will likely take it back today, but it is all to play for in the final week...
