Was just thinking on Sunday that for a team that was nearly thrown out of cycling for doping, Astana are not doing a good job of convincing everyone that they are drug free.

With Aru's lawsuit issued against Henderson today, everyone will be minding their p's and q's.

Well taken stage by Tiralongo yesterday, having sat marking the break all afternoon and then given free reign when they no longer presented a threat.

Whoosh! Being passed by 7mph faster rider: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02rnyr1

that's pretty good......

Sean is back on ES after missing the first week of the Giro........he's had an operation

The breakaway caught the peloton napping...on a pan-flat stage!! Nicola Boem (riding for Bardiani) took the spoils today, Nizzolo wins the bunch sprint (for fifth place, 18 seconds behind Boem), and Porte loses almost 50 seconds to his GC rivals via mechanical!

Porte given a two minute penalty and a fine for accepting help. They just killed the race. Nice one, guys.....

http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/racin...ditalia-172627

The question that needs asking, where were Richies team mates? they should have been with him and given him their wheel

Shame for Porte but I don't think he was ever going to win.........I might be wrong but he strikes me as a guy who's always going to be competing for 3rd or 4th

He went one way around a roundabout and the rest of the team when the other way. When they realized that he wasn't ahead of them, they regrouped and went back. Just one of those things.

Well, not a very satisfactory week in the Giro so far as a returned doper wins today's stage and the competition for the overall is now between a returned doper and a rider in a team choc-full of dopers.

Porte is expected to win the long time trial at the weekend. Before the puncture and time penalty, he stood a good chance of taking the pink jersey. As little as 1 sec/km gain totals 1 min over the stage. The suggestion was Sky were seen so little at the front to date because they were playing the long game and anticipating defending a narrow margin in the final week.

Yes, seemed clear to me that their strategy was to keep their powder dry in the first week and let Tinkoff and Astana tire themselves out. They were playing a long game.

Kristoff continues where he left off with a pair of stage victories in the Tour of Norway, with possibly more to come. Even after Cav's 7-stage bounty in the past month, Kristoff is already set to regain the lead in this season's victories (currently 13 a piece).

Speaking of Cav, he is 30 years of age today (and just a day younger than Froome).

Another race this weekend - highlights only on Eurosport. The grandly named two-day World Ports Classic aka the Tour of Antwerp Container Docks.

And after the current Astana trio, the guy in fifth is awaiting his 10 June CAS appeal against a two year ban for blood doping. No prizes for guessing which team he was on when the alleged offences occurred.

Pellizotti was in a lone break yesterday. He was to sign for Astana last season but the MPCC blocked the move because of his earlier two year ban.

Long session on ES today as we join today's stage with 105K to go

The stage finish today is at Lido de Jesolo

I went there on holiday 50 years ago !.......

I was only a kid and we went Mum and Dad, two kids, all the gear for camping.......Dad drove there in a Fiat 500 with a trailer attached to the back

It's near Venice

Another pan-flat stage, another GC incident (!) - crash occurs just outside the 3km zone, which means Contador loses a Grand Tour GC lead for the first time in his career...currently 19 seconds (I think) behind Aru now.

Modolo wins his first Giro stage.

Yes you are correct Contrador looses the Pink after a crash and Arau takes the pink with 19 sec. Mountain stages Sat/Sun so Contador will pull the Pink on again IMO, well I hope so it was so unlucky for him to be pulled down in the crash outside the 3km , but he got another bike very quickly , but not quick enough to catch bacl up with the finishers.

Can anybody explain why all the women in the Women's Cycling World cup look to be so butch ?? I've been flicking over the Sports channels and noticed them on EuroSport .
They all have very masculine bodies and even in the interviews they have rather masculine features / jawlines and lots of facial hair ( bum- fluff - sideburns) .

Is it just a case of tomboys being good at sport or it steroids or something ??

Getting very p***ed off with this Giro commentary now. It's all very well going on about Pantani doping 15 years ago when it is patently obvious that it's going on right under your nose, matey.

Richie Porte has withdrawn from the Giro today - crashed on Friday and has not recovered. Will now prepare to support Froome in the TdF.

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/201...ws-giro-italia

Not a total surprise, considering how the week went for him.

Unsurprisingly, after losing a lot of time on the final climb yesterday, Porte has withdrawn from the Giro citing knees and hip issues arising from the crash late on Stage 13.

Froome has criticised Katusha and Astana for pushing on when Contador punctured today. It made little difference in the end with Astana allowing a 4min gap to open up to Contador as Aru faltered.

Two mountain top finishes left in the Giro. The most dramatic climb is the penultimate on Stage 20: Half the 9% Finestre is on unbound roads. http://www.procyclingstats.com/race/...triere-details

Interesting article on the behind the scenes negotiations at the Giro: http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/giro...in-2016-market

Wiggins hour record attempt to be shown on Sky Sports and their YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/SkySportsOfficial