Team Time Trial to kick things off in Tirreno-Adratico........1.15pm start on Eurosport

The plan appears to be to show the last hour or so of Paris-Nice live when the TTT finishes.......todays stage finishes with a Category 2 climb which might see the GC taking shape after a couple of sprint finishes.

Snow has cancelled the stage it seems...

After his Gold Medal in London last week Gaviria has now recorded his first World Tour stage win at T-A

No doubt that he's the young buck in the sprinting division

Finally the stage is pushing on in T-A. Cancellara driving the pack up the climb in long sleeves and not even bothering to unzip his gillet.

The Meldonium positive count is up to 99. I wonder if there are any more east European cyclists names to come out?

Steve Cummings took that well. Team released him from marking the break and he didn't need a second offer.

His Eritrean teammate Natnael Berhane finished in third place, which is an excellent WorldTour performance for his country - more results like that, and DD will continue to convince their detractors that it ain't all about Cav.

And on to final climb in P-N. Live on Letour website, 5km left, or 50km out on ES highlights.

Great battle on the P-N final climb. Well worth watching the highlights. I'll say no more.

If anyone wants to know:

Zaharin is a doper, of course. In the modern Russian style, dope 'em young, take the ban, enjoy the benefits later. Served a 2 year ban at age 19.

Terrific performances by 3 brits today.....Cummings, Thomas and Yates

Ben Swift did a great job too though eventually paid for it

Tomorrow's T-A queen stage is cancelled due to poor weather conditions:
http://www.etixx-quickstep.com/en/ne...cancelled/2599

Because, as usual, the final P-N Sunday stage finishes early, both races were planned to be covered live on ES tomorrow.

Zakarin raised hackles last season winning the Tour of Romandie. When the time loss for the bike change is taken into account, he was quicker than Tony Martin in the ITT: https://youtu.be/GFYO_wqwZww?t=1m32s

I like the new Lotto Soudal kit and matching bike frame. Not that impressed with the change of name for a week to promote a specific product.

that could be a very slippery slope

it's bad enough now with teams changing every couple of years

With T-A cancelled for the day all eyes are on Paris-Nice with Geraint Thomas going into the final stage in the leaders jersey

He has 15 seconds on Contador

Come on G !..........

Just trying to think.........despite GBs resurgence over the last 10 years it's still pretty rare for a GB rider to win a world tour stage race, well any world tour race

Wiggo has won the Tour and P-N, Froome the Tour, Cav won Milan-San Remo a few years ago

That's all I can think of.........

Here's the list of recent GB victories in men's top-tier races:

Contador has attacked on the penultimate climb - a long way out but his only chance of making serious attempt on closing the gap as Col d'Eze is too short. No live pics until 12:45 so stuck with yesterday's news. S4C are covering the stage - I wonder why?

http://www.letour.fr/paris-nice/2016/us/live/aso/

Blimey this is some race.....

Contador has ridden away and joined up with 2 team-mates who were up the road

they are about 25-30 seconds ahead of Thomas and the Sky team

it's team v team.......

there is a lead group further up the road, Contador is in no man's land

Looks like Contador's group have mopped up a few more riders .......but Sky are hammering it behind and catching them.......

.........and Sky catch them just as we get on the final climb

Contador will attack on the final climb.......can Thomas stay with him until they crest the climb, if so he should win?

oops........Thomas being dropped on the latest attack from Contador.......

Thomas Lashé

can he get back on the downhill run into Nice?

Thomas definitely gaining time back at the moment....

Thomas doing a grand job on the descent.........of course Contador might well get some bonus seconds as well if the front 3 stay out

Think the race winner will come from the second group though, so probably not many bonus seconds on offer.

Oh, look, that's my yacht just there.

.......and there's my girlfriend.....