Giro d'Italia Women stage 6 LIVE: A four rider breakaway formed early in the stage, the peloton controlling behind
A welcome relief with another flat stage where the sprinters could shine on 155km route from Ala to Brescello
130km to go
Bezzone, Spimi, Segato and Cagnazzo have increased their lead to 3.50. It seems the pattern of the day is set.
140km to go
We're almost at the bottom of the descent and Bezzone, Spimi, Segato and Cagnazzo's lead has extended to three minutes.
So it's unlikely SD Worx-Protime will ride for a sprint today, though they almost certainly compete should the stage conclude that way. Expect either Barbara Guarischi or, more likely, Femke Gerritse to have a go.
With the loss of both Lorena Wiebes and Mikayla Harvey, SD Worx have a depleted team and they will to be firing on all five cylinders for Saturday's Alpine stage.
It's a long stage today and with only four riders up the road, the peloton may well allow them a huge lead. Segato is the closest to Anna van der Breggen on the GC, but she's at 23.51, giving SD Worx little incentive to ride.
150km to go
Bezzone, Spimi, Segato and Cagnazzo seem to be established very quickly, their lead is already approaching two minutes, before the descent we mentioned.
Camilla Bezzone (Mendelspeck E-Work), Sharon Spimi (Top Girls Fassa Bortolo) and the Vini Fantini-Be Pink pair of Gaia Segato and Irene Cagnazzo have already built a lead of more than one minute.
And we have a small break of four women up the road already.
After 16km the peloton will drop down a 5km descent to Riva del Garda, on the shores of the lake, then it's kilometre after beautiful kilometre along the lake shore.
Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) successfully defended the overall lead yesterday, despite having a small support team.
"It was a good day, but also a hard day," she said.
Official start
Let's go racing! From Ala, out of the hills and onto the Po Valley for what should be a sprint in Brescello, 160km later.
Once by the lake it's still a little lumpy, but at 95km the riders will descend onto the flat plain of the Po Valley, and the final 60km contains only 100m of vertical ascent. And let's not forget that wind.
We might still be up in the hills, but there's only 657m of climbing today as we head downhill to the eastern shore of Lake Garda, which the race follows all the way south.
And we're rolling for stage 6, we start with 3.9km of neutral. Its a beautiful day, with highs of about 28º and little chance of rain. There is wind, though, 15 km/h or more, and with the flat exposed nature of the second part of the course, there just might be some action.
The Giro d'Italia is always a race of attrition, now we're past the half-way mark a number of riders are out of the race.
Past stage winner Clara Emond among four riders out of race after mountainous stage 5.
Today's start is in the hills at Ala, north of Verona and we race 160km south to Brescello for what is the longest stage of the race.
There's plenty pink on show at the Giro today, except for EF Education-Oatly, who ride in their change kit.
Wednesday's mountain stage not only saw changes in the general classification but it was a fabulous day's racing.
Good morning once again, it's stage 7 of the Giro d'Italia Women, stay with us once again for updates of the entire stage.
Today it's back to the flat lands for what we can expect to be a sprint stage, though with huge time gaps on GC maybe a breakaway will take the day. We roll at 13:50CET.
