Cycling Live

Giro d'Italia - Udine - Riese Pio X

Live Comments

  1. 0km** - Petacchi holds off Richeze! He takes his 23rd Giro stage victory!

  2. 0.2km - It's between Petacchi and Richeze (Panaria Ceramica) now. The fall left everyone else without a chance.

  3. 0.4km - Alessandro Petacchi launches his sprint from a long way out...

  4. 0.8** - A huge crash 800 m from the finish!!! Usov and Mondory (Ag2r) go hurtling into the barriers, and Bettini is pushed wide - he has lost all momentum!

  5. 1.5km - Vincenzo Nibali tries to attack early!

  6. 2km** - Tossato now to the fore, will he launch Bettini?

  7. 3km** - Tinkoff hit the front of the peloton.

  8. 5km** - A fierce tempo being set as they go under the 5km to go banner.

  9. 7km** - 7 kilometers to go as the peloton catches the escapees!

  10. 9km** - Some equipment hooked up to Credit Agricole's Angelo Furlan shows his heart rate is at 117 beats per minute - 65% of his maximum capacity.

  11. 14km* - Maxim Gourov has put in a huge turn for the quartet up front, but the peloton have them in their sights now. They can see them up the road.

  12. 17km* - Laszlo Bodrogi hits the front of the pack now and spreads them out. Could Julian Dean get a stage win for the Credit Agricole team?

  13. 18km* - The latest split shows the gap had fallen to 36 seconds, and I'm afraid that spells doom for Gourov, Renier, Engel and Berthou.

  14. 20km* - The front four have finished the first of their two loops around Riese, and their lead has fallen to under one minute.

  15. 25km* - Bettini now nattering away happily next to Di Luca. The world champion has had a slightly disappointing race, given his ability as a sprinter.

  16. 26km* - A stage win today for Alessandro Petacchi would put him level with Francesco Moser on 23 stage wins in the Giro.

  17. 27km* - Vila, Horrillo and Ignatiev have all been swallowed up by the peloton.

  18. 33km* - Milram are at the front of the peloton, they are just over a minute behind the front quartet.

  19. 35km* - The long straight roads re not exactly helping those out front to preserve their lead...now Gourov attacks, and Renier (Bouygues Telecom), Engel (QuickStep) and Eric Berthou (Caisse d'Epargne) go with him.

  20. 36km* - The peloton has woken up. A definite change in tempo now as they whittle the time difference down to 1'23".

  21. 40km* - 1'45" the latest split as the leaders enter Castelfranco Veneto. You'd expect the Milram boys to start coming to the fore fairly soon.

  22. 42km* - The seven riders out front have put their foot down again, and built their lead back up to 1'52".

  23. 45km* - Stefano Garzelli is sharing a joke with his compatriot Paolo Bettini in the pack.

  24. 46km* - A reminder of the seven riders in the lead group: Engels, Gourov, Vila, Renier, Berthou, Horrillo and Ignatiev.

  25. 50km* - Britain's Steve "Jumbo" Cummings is sitting happily at the back of the peloton. He suffered badly on the Zoncolan yesterday, but it still here today. Finishing his first grand tour will be a big step for him.

  26. 56km* - The leaders seem to be tiring. They're gradually losing time. Their lead has been cut to 1'14" now.

  27. 62km* - A rare appearance for the Euskaltel team at the front of the peloton. They will be looking to launch Koldo Fernandez at the finish.

  28. 63km* - 1'44" is the gap as the rach the 140th kilometre of the day.

  29. 73km* - Milram are keeping the pace pretty high at the front of the pack. They will be looking to ensure they give Alessandro Petacchi a shot at his fourth stage win of the GIro.

  30. 75km* - This is hardly the most thrilling stage ever witnessed. The peloton is still 1'48" behind the seven leaders, who are failing to get any further clear. That's pretty much all there is to say at the moment.

  31. 95km* - Grub up! The seven leaders reach the food station at Codega di Santurbano.

  32. 110km - The leaders' advantage remains pretty much stable. 2'12" is the latest split.

  33. 116km - The average speed over the second hour of the race is 47 km/h.

  34. 117km - The gap falls to 1'48" as they escapees hit kilometre 86.

  35. 124km - The gap betweent he peloton and the breakaway group has remained between 2'00" and 2'30".

  36. 125km - We have just learnt that Britain's Charles Wegelius has dropped out. Until now, Liquigas had been the only team with no abandomnments. No longer.

  37. 150km - The advantage of the septet has now reached 2'00"

  38. 152km - The gap has now extended to 1'46"

  39. 156km - The average speed in the first hour of racing was 46.8km/h

  40. 160km - The seven escapees have now built up a lead of one minute on the field.

  41. 170km - Another attack. Franck Renier, Mikhail Ignatiev, Maxim Gourov, Addy Engels, Vila Errandonea, Horrillo Munoz, Eric Berthou go clear.

  42. 173km - Leonardo Piepoli is virtually guaranteed the climber's green jersey four days before the finish in Milan. He has an advantage of 27 points over Panaria's Fortunato Baliani.

  43. 174km - CSC's Andy Schleck is sitting pretty at the top of the young rider standings. He has a lead of 2'55" over Saunier Duval's Riccardo Ricco in that classification.

  44. 177km - The bunch is being spread out, though is still intact.

  45. 182km - They're struggling to stay away though, and are now swallowed back up.

  46. 184km - The quartet now have a ten second lead over the field.

  47. 187km - Leonardo Scarselli, Marco Marzano, Koos Moerenhout and Ricardo Serrano jump the pack! Clearly they have fresher legs than most.

  48. 192km - After stage 17, Danilo Di Luca (Liquigas) is still at the head of the general classification. His main rival is now Andy Schleck (CSC). The Luxemburger is now 2'24" behind the Italian, with Gilberto Simoni a further four seconds back.

  49. 193km - No action of note to report so far. The riders are in single file after the first 10 kilometres.

  50. 203km - We're underway in stage 18 of the Giro d'Italia. It will be interesting to see whether any hardy souls attempt a breakaway after yesterday's torturous stage finish.

  51. 11:00 - Welcome to eurosport.yahoo.com's liv text comments of stage 18 of the Giro d'Italia between Udine and Riese Pio X.