Good morning and welcome along as we head deeper into the first week of this Giro d'Italia. Today we have a hilly stage but one that should come down to the short, steep final climb in Guardia Sanframondi.
This is the scene at the start in Foggia, where the riders signing on for the stage.
The roll-out is coming up at 12:40 local time (in around 20 minutes), and the start proper is set to be given 10 minutes after that.
Before we get going, now's the time for a re-cap. Full results and standings can be found in our stage 7 report from yesterday.
🙋♂️🙋🙋♂️🙋#Giro pic.twitter.com/4pFJtWc5DCMay 15, 2021
Here's a closer look at the final climb. It's short, but nasty. It's not something that'll create significant gaps between the overall contenders but they'll all have to be on high-alert. Positioning will be important on the run-in.
The riders are assembled on the start line. Groupama-FDJ's Attila Valter wears the famous maglia rosa as the overall leader. Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) is in the maglia ciclamino as leader of the points classification after his second stage win yesterday, while Gino Mader (Bahrain Victorious) is in blue as leader of the mountains classification and Remco Evenepoel (Deceuncnick-QuickStep) is decked in white as the best young rider.
They're off. A short neutral-zone awaits before the flag is waved and the fight for the break begins.
Valter there. We have a nice interview with him coming up shortly.
The riders are still massed behind the race director's car, waiting for the go-ahead.
We're off!
The first attack is launched by an Intermarché rider. He looks around and sees multiple reactions behind.
The Intermarché rider now sees the response ebb, and decides himself to drift back to the bunch. Things stall now.
Bardiani-CSF and Eolo-Kometa kick off the next wave of breakaway attempts.
A large group goes clear but the peloton is strung out in chase behind.
The dozen or so riders at the head of the bunch have split off into their own group. There's a bit of wind out there at the moment.
A monster group has formed at the head of affairs. But the peloton is aware of the danger and chasing it down.
Bernal's up there!
The presence of the 2019 Tour de France champion and pre-race favourite is the death of that large break. Others in the group remonstrate with the Colombian, asking what he's doing there. He has killed that group's chances, as they all ease up with the peloton now on their case.
It's splitting again into large chunks. There's a bit of side-wind and all the GC contenders are on alert here, perhaps why Bernal found himself up there.
Deceuncink-QuickStep close a gap for Evenepoel, shutting down another really big group that was in danger of going clear.
The peloton has split in two now.
Filippo Ganna is at the head of the first group, Bernal in his wheel.
Valter caught out
Ewan and Nizzolo are back in the second bunch, but it remains to be seen if any pre-race favourites have been caught out.
Intermarché look to drive this on, as Bahrain did just before, but the second peloton is starting to gain ground.
159km to go
Romain Bardet (Team DSM) had been caught on the wrong side of that split, as had Trek-Segafredo.
The route has turned off the main road and the threat of the wind seems to have ebbed away. It's a full bunch and now we see new breakaway attempts.
Bardiani kick it off again but now it's an Intermarché representative heading up the road.
Riders from Bora and Lotto join in but they're not getting away as the bunch strings out through the town of Lucera.
Back out onto the wide highway and things intensify once more.
151km to go
Iljo Keisse has been designated to guide Evenepoel through this tense portion of the race.
It was cross-headwind to start with but now it's coming more directly from the right. It's not super strong but it doesn't take long for damage to be done.
Most GC riders are being kept up front out of trouble. No big effort to split the race of break away at this point.
148km to go
There's a response behind from multiple riders.
The responses come to nothing but here come more counter-attack efforts
The three riders are Ruben Guerreiro (EF-Nippo), Stefano Oldani (Lotto Soudal), and Quinten Hermans (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert).
The trio don't seem to be gaining ground here. Fresh moves come from behind.
Six riders have managed to join that front trio, but the peloton is right on their heels and more are trying to make the junction.
That front group swells to 20. Ineos are chasing now.
Ganna is doing a huge turn here, just in front of Keisse.
Ganna drags the race back together. Now it's in one long line.
The back of the peloton is one single-file line, and that's a real danger, but it's easing again up towards the front.
Movistar kick off a new attack but it's soon snuffled out.
We've done almost 30km already. We've been on an extended false flat but the road is about to tilt uphill more severely. It's not categorised but it's still a climb.
A wooded section provides some shelter from the wind and fresh breakaway attempts materialise.
Onto a massive bridge, where the road is narrowed due to roadworks, and we have a couple of small gaps but nothing definitive.
Off the bridge and it's pretty much all together although a number of riders are trying to push this on.
Alessandro De Marchi (Israel Start-Up Nation) is up there, trying to get a group clear.
Gianluca Brambilla (Trek-Segafredo) puts in a bigger acceleration now and gets a gap on his own.
The Italian is joined by a Movistar rider, possibly Jorgenson.
They're joined by a DSM rider but the gaps are slim.
Eight more riders are just behind, but the peloton is still right there.
The riders are still climbing on another raised highway.
It's very fluid in that group just in front of the bunch and now Patrick Bevin takes it on for Israel.
Into a tunnel and we emerge into the darkness to find some bigger splits.
That tunnel was the top of the climb and now it's a fast downhill on wide roads. Gino Mader is away with a rider from Astana.
It's Samuele Battistella for Astana. They're being hunted down by a solo chaser, with the bunch - itself split slightly in the tunnel - just behind.
The peloton reforms behind the two leaders as they head downhill.
130km to go
Plenty of riders dropped on that uncategorised climb are fighting to make their way through the cars back to the bunch.
Things haven't eased up behind and the peloton is strung out again under new accelerations.
Mader and Battistella are caught.
Italian TV are reporting that there was a crash in that tunnel, hence the splits.
It's still downhill, although the gradient isn't as pronounced as at the start of this descent.
Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) has abandoned the race
Not sure what has happened with Ewan - perhaps he was involved in that tunnel crash? - but that's just been announced on race radio.
Ewan was always likely to leave the Giro early, given he's doing the Tour and Vuelta, but not this early. He was caught out in the early splits but was obviously in decent form given his two stage wins. A crash would explain things.
Meanwhile, the race continues in similar vein. A volley of accelerations but nothing opening daylight.
It's still false flat downhill and it's hard for anyone to get a gap here.
The bunch strings out in a line. Nothing sticking but danger is everywhere. Nothing has been allowed clear but it's not like there's a huge amount of control. GC contenders still alert near the front.
Eight riders succeed in going clear now, but some have missed out and now the responses come.
The riders are coming off that slight downhill and the road will tilt up the other way again.
116km to go
Fernando Gaviria is up there for UAE Team Emirates.
A new counter-attacking trio forms behind.
It's kicking off again. It looked like that gap might be enough, but there are enough riders not happy to see this go.
Victor Campenaerts (Qhubeka Assos) is alone in between.
This looks like it could be it. The peloton has eased up. Will it last?
112km to go
I spoke too soon. More attacks from the peloton now. They're 25 seconds behind the front of the race. Campenaerts still struggling to close the gap alone.
Here are the eight leaders
Campenaerts is so close. He's seven seconds behind. This is a huge effort.
Things appear to be easing once more in the peloton. That last counter-attack came to nothing and now Valter's Groupama-FDJ's teammates have come to the front to try and impose order.
Here comes the Hour Record holder. Those eight riders were working hard together to get away so that's a great ride to get across.
106km to go
The road is rising here and will ratchet up all the way to the intermediate sprint at Campobasso with 86km to go. From there, it's a short descent before the day's major climb, the second-category Bocca della Selva (18.9km at 4.6%). A long old descent will then take them down into Castelvenere ready for the short final climb.
There was a crash in the tunnel but not for Ewan, he was dropped or had sat up before then reports RAI. Retired from the raceMay 15, 2021
Here's our story
100km to go
The riders in the peloton are getting musettes from the soigneurs. It was a fast and furious first hour and a half but now they can enjoy some lunch.
Groupama-FDJ allow the gap to drift out to 4:15. There's no big threat from a GC perspective, Oliveira being the best-placed overall, just over 15 minutes down.
Want to know more about our race leader, Attila Valter? Want to know what video games he plays? Here you go...
90km to go
For those who haven't read the piece, the major news today is that the leader of the Giro d'Italia plays Spiderman online in his spare time. Now I'm not a 'gamer', but while I can just about understand someone playing something like Call of Duty, I'm really struggling with the idea of a grown man playing Spiderman. Am I just old?
Anyway, in the race we're approaching that intermediate sprint.
Gaviria is likely to be interested in this sprint. He's the only one in there with any real collection of points and of course the points classification leader Ewan has already gone home.
Gaviria pushes through to the front, out of the saddle and on the hoods. Gougeard tracks him.
Gaviria has gone long here and Gougeard is poised in the wheel.
Gougeard decides against trying to spoil the party and Gaviria musters a mini sprint to collect the maximum 12 points.
Here are the new points classification standings, taking into account that sprint and Ewan's exit
82km to go
Lotto Soudal have confirmed that Ewan was struggling with knee pain.
All calm for now as the gap nudges out towards the seven-minute mark. We have a light descent ahead of the day's major climb.
The nine-man break hits the Bocca della Stelva. A long climb - 18.9km - but with a modest average gradient - 4.6%. There's a steeper section in the middle but otherwise it's a pretty steady ascent and shouldn't cause too much damage.
It depends on how hard the peloton race up this climb, but it's looking promising for the breakaway as they take a lead of 7:15 onto the climb.
Into your tech? Here's an all-new TT bike from De Rosa. It went under the radar at the time, but Elia Viviani rode it on the opening day of this Giro. Here are the details.
Here's a shot from the frantic start earlier. Bernal there, who briefly found himself in a large breakaway group. The rider next to him is Iljo Keisse, who was tasked with protecting Remco Evenepoel amid the chaos.
It's all calm on this climb. The nine breakaway riders are working well together and FDJ are riding tempo in the peloton, 7:30 behind.
It's blustery on this climb, where the peloton continues as one large group. Ineos are set up behind the Groupama-FDJ train.
56km to go
Mechanical problem for Simon Yates, who has to stop for assistance.
Sprinter Dylan Groenewegen loses contact with the bunch now.
Yates is safely brought back to the bunch by his teammates after getting a new rear wheel.
The breakaway are on the upper reaches of the Bocca della Selva. They're still together and have only lost 10 seconds of their lead. They'll be competing for the stage win today.
Problem for Dan Martin
The Israel Start-Up Nation rider has a more panicky stop than Yates as he grabs a spare bike from his team and gets going again.
53km to go
There are a maximum of 18 mountains points at the top of this climb. Gavazzi is the only rider in the break with a stake in that classification so far. Gougeard is the only other one with a point, and it's only a solitary point.
They come to the top now and Goossens is interested in fighting for this.
Arndt also strikes out and is second to the top. Gavazzi is up there but settles for third.
48km to go
Oliveira takes on the descent in pole position, applying the pressure.
An increase in pace in the bunch as they near the top now. Teams will want to be in a decent position for the descent. The gap has come down to 6:20 as a result.
Gaviria can follow Oliveira but the rest of the break are straggling.
The peloton come over the top of the climb. FDJ have two riders in front of Valter over the top, as Bora, Movistar, and QuickStep force their way through.
This descent has a couple of brief uphill interruptions and the break have hit the first of them after a rapid first 9km of downhill. They're back together now.
A few little gaps as the peloton tears downhill.
A Bora rider took it on to begin with but now Matej Mohoric, one of the very best descenders, hits the front.
Here's a shot of the break