It's the same teams, pretty much. The Elite Series is full scale road racing, I think 8 races per year. Highlights are on Eurosport usually. The Pearl Izumi is city centre criteriums. However, much bigger crowds and better TV coverage. There's also the London Nocturne (a one-off criterium), the British Champs, then another autumn criterium series usually on Eurosport, and the British Criterium Champs. Even a decade ago none of this was on TV at all, now it all is.

Anyway, rain in California. Tomorrow's ITT has had to be moved, snow in the Sierra Nevada! They need the water.

Must say I find it difficult to get excited about what are usually 30 minutes recorded highlights (minus adverts time) ..........I don't normally watch any of the domestic races on TV

Do you remember way back in the 80s channel 4 used to do a series of city criterium races........was that 'live' ?

Don't think it was. Utterly lashing it down now in CA.

Crash !

there was quite a big crash in the finishing straight in the Giro today.......

Oh bummer.......there's an area fault on Virgin TV and Broadband........scheduled fix time 4.30pm today

I might miss todays stage.......

Seemingly Contador dislocated his shoulder in the Giro crash yesterday...no decision yet as to whether he continues! Another dumb spectator. It was close enough to the finish, so no time lost.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/32745111

And another win for Cav, showing he is really the king of the straight-out sprint at the moment.

He's looking in better shape than he has done for a couple of years I think. Hopefully he can win some more stages on the Tour this year though it will be tough of course.

Looks as though Contador will start today - I'm really enjoying the Giro this year

Contador is riding and doing of despite his shoulder injury, looks a bit uncomfortable which is what you would expect after his dislocation. Long race but it will be Aru or Michael Matthews to win stage 7.

24km left to go , Contrador is up in Peloton along with 4 member s of Tinko and looks as though other riders are looking after him as well which is good to see. 32 second between front of race and Contrador/peloton.

Diego Ulissi wins it for Lampre, Matthews, and Contrador not in top 10 , great finish last km.

Early TV start today at 12:30 but action already underway in the rain. Porte, Aru and Kreuziger up front in a group of 45 so riders, a minute ahead of the peloton with Contador seemingly left behind. http://media.sbs.com.au/cyclingcentral/girotracker/ (no pics)

After playing the 'I can't pull' bluff on Sébastien Reichenbach, Beñat Intxausti took the honours in today's Giro stage. All the main GC contenders finished together, and despite concerns about the shoulder holding up today, Contador actually gained a couple of seconds on his rivals (from an intermediate sprint). XD

Great day for Movistar as Alex Dowsett also won today's ITT in Bayern Rundfahrt (pipping Tiago Machado by a second) and now leads the GC by two seconds with only tomorrow's stage left (flat like the rest of them; intermediate bonus seconds up for grabs as well). On the Irish front, Sam Bennett has won two of the other three stages and is certainly making his case for a TdF debut.

Team Wiggins has been busy these past few days - their eponymous rider (resplendent in a gold UKSI helmet and slightly different rainbow skinsuit to those he wore earlier in the year) rode the 10-mile V718 course in 17:58 - a fast ride given the wind, but Dowsett's comp record of 17:20 survives. Andy Tennant and Owain Doull have also won 3 stages of the Flèche du Sud between themselves (classified 2.2 so not designated as professional victories).

Great stage in Tour of California last night, mountaintop win for Julian Alaphillipe, but Peter Sagan killed himself to limit his loss in the overall to just 2 seconds to Alaphillipe, so setting up the time bonus sprint tomorrow as the decisive stage. Starts earlier, at 18:00.

I was surprised at how poor they were in the first Pearl Izumi race, not involved at all. It's a very specialised form of racing though.

I did have that on the telly but had the sound down as I was listening to football on the radio........seemed quite interesting

It looked like track racing on a street circuit........5 man team trial over a track pursuit trip of around 4K.......then what looked like a points race

Can anybody tell me how these cyclists who are on a bike for 5,6 hours go to the toilet.


Loving the Giro

They simply pull to a side of the road and relieve themselves (#2s have to wait until after the race unless they're really desparate) - obviously not something the host broadcaster chooses to film...unless it's OBS, who did so in the Olympic road race a few years ago!!

You do see them stopping a lot during the earlier part of the race on the days where the TV shows the whole stage start to finish, but usually by the time the TV cameras show up towards the end they are mostly concentrating on the race. And of course the further on the race goes the less is going into the bladder anyway. I think the commentators mentioned yesterday that when the race leader stops, they pretty much all stop. Women's races are always much shorter....

Paolo Tiralongo wins today's Giro stage. Aru gaps Contador by a second to reduce his deficit to just 3 seconds, with Porte still in touch 22 seconds behind.

Dowsett claims his first GC victory in Bayern Rundfahrt. His next races will be the Tour de Suisse and the British Championships (he wants the ITT tricolore back); he also wants to be selected for the TdF.

Brits have won 3 of the last 5 editions of BR.

Getting tense in California, Sagan has got one second back on Alaphillipe, now there's a small breakaway so no more seconds until the end. Think Sagan wins if he finishes in the top 3.

Amazing finish, Sagan got third place by literally a centimetre picks up 4 seconds bonus, wins the overall. Cav wins the final stage.

Here's the proof - GC decided by bike throw!!

I was hoping the other guy would win........

If they are in a small breakaway they will sometimes just pee as they ride and hose them self down with a bidon of water.

And you may be sure the girls who have to handout the prizes on the podium are cheering for a bunch sprint.

There are fines for being caught doing it in sight of spectators.

Apparently, no rules for tweeting photos though https://twitter.com/UranRigoberto/st...026113/photo/1

I get the impression Uran spent a lot of time last winter promoting his image and brand. So far in this year's Giro, his performance edge at the sharp end of the race is clearly missing .