Giro d'Italia Women stage 3 LIVE: After a fast start a breakaway of six leads, with two riders chasing
A step up in difficulty as the peloton race along a 156km route from Bibione to Buja in Friuli
The weather is looking less than appealing as the riders head north.
130km to go
Tonetti, Jackson, Deotto, Veenhoven, Pavesi and Guarischi lead the peloton by 2.40, while Hashimi and Zsankó are back together but 55 seconds behind the leaders.
Tonetti, Jackson, Deotto, Veenhoven, Pavesi and Guarischi now have 2.40 on the peloton, while Hashimi has dropped Zsankó.
Tonetti, Jackson, Deotto, Veenhoven, Pavesi and Guarischi now lead by one minute, though there are two more riders chasing.
Fariba Hashimi (Vini Fantini-BePink) and Petra Zsankó (Aromitalia Vaiano) are in pursuit.
And those five have been joined by Barbara Guarischi (SD Worx-Protime), so a group of 6 are away.
Other teams may not like the fact Guarischi is in there, the presence of someone from a team with a GC contender might not be a good thing for them.
Cristina Tonetti (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi), Alison Jackson (St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93), Eleonora Deotto (Mendelspeck E-Work), Nienke Veenhoven (Visma-Lease a Bike), and Marta Pavesi (Top Girls Fassa Bortolo) are up the road with a lead of 25 seconds.
140km to go
Still no news on the escapees.
Five riders have managed to claw their way clear, but their lead is negligible at the moment.
It's a busy start with plenty of attacks springing off the front.
Plenty of people came out to the start in Bibione today to see the race leader, Elisa Balsamo and her Lidl-Trek team mates.
The start is on the coast again before we head north, as we did yesterday, this time to the edge of the Julian Prealps. We've got a 4th category climb before we pass through the finish with 43km in Buja, but the main climb of the day, Montenars, tops out with 21.3km to go, after which it's downhill much of the way to the line.
We're off and rolling, this time for almost 9km of neutral before we get going. It's relatively cool at the start, around 24º and it's cooler at the finish with a 30% chance of rain later, though the wind is nothing to speak of.
With just a few minutes until the neutralised start, sign on is well under way. Today could be a good one for World Champion, Magdeleine Vallieres (EF Education-Oatly).
It's been a tough week for SD Worx-Protime after losing sprinter, Lorena Wiebes on stage one.
Barbara Guarischi stepped into her place, but said, "This role doesn't belong to me any more."
For today's stage we've moved further east for, another 156km starting on the coast at Bibione and heading north to Buja for a lumpy finish. We roll out at 13:30CET.
Sunday's boiling stage came down to another battle of the sprinters.
Elisa Balsamo sped to victory wearing the maglia rosa.
It was an emotional day for Elisa Balsamo yesterday, winning in Italy wearing the maglia rosa.
Good afternoon and welcome back to the Cyclingnews live coverage of the Giro d'Italia Women.
