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Giro d'Italia stage 13 - Live coverage

Stage 13 Giro d'Italia 2022 profile

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Good morning and welcome to live coverage of Stage 13 of the Giro d'Italia.

Today, Trek-Segafredo's Juan Pedro López will wear the maglia rosa for the ninth day running, as his team defends the lead in the general classification.

In terms of today's stage, it's one of the shortest days in the race, which will be a relief to the riders following yesterday's longest stage.

We begin today on the Ligurian coast in Sanremo, famously the finish location for the one-day Monument Milano-Sanremo. Today's route replicates part of the alternate 2020 route, but it will feel a lot shorter - at just 150km in total, it's only just over half of the total distance of Milano-Sanremo.

At 150km, stage 12 is the second shortest road stage of the race so far, with the shortest coming tomorrow. 

There's been much debate over whether today is one for the breakaway, or the sprint. With only one category three climb, and over half of the race remaining after it for sprinters to make up lost ground, a sprint seems more likely. 

The race has rolled out in Sanremo, and the flag will shortly drop to officially begin the racing on stage 12.

150km to go

The peloton travels through Sanremo, and will travel alongside the coast to Imperia before turning inland and heading north.

145km to go

Once again it's looking as though it may take a little while to establish the break.

Groupama-FDJ work on the front of the peloton to reel the breakaway back in. They are protecting maglia ciclamino Arnaud Démare, and will ride for a bunch sprint finish.

Once again a number of riders try to get away and Groupama-FDJ ride to close the gap.

Diego Rosa of EOLO-Kometa is understandably keen to be a part of today's break. He currently wears the maglia azzurra and will hope to take the KOM points available at the top of today's only categorised climb.

140km to go

Nicolas Prodhomme (AG2R-Citroen) and Pascal Eenkhoorn (Jumbo Visma) join the group of three to make it a breakaway group of five.

The gap quickly grows as the peloton allow the breakaway to get ahead. The gap is around 2 minutes.

135km to go

130km to go

Nicolas Prodhomme with his AG2R-Citroen colleagues before Stage 12. The Frenchman makes up one fifth of the breakaway group, who currently hold a 3'13" advantage over the peloton. He has never won a race at world tour level.

125km to go

The race turns inland and begins to head north towards today's final destination, Cuneo. 

120km to go

The peloton travels north from Liguria to Piedmont today.

115km to go

Romain Bardet (Team DSM) has abandoned the race.

Romain Bardet was performing extremely well on the general classification so his abandonment of the race has come as a huge surprise. He has left the race due to alleged stomach problems.

The race heads towards the first intermediate sprint of the day, before immediately beginning the ascent of Colle di Nava.

Official statement from Team DSM regarding Romain Bardet's condition.

110km to go

The points for the intermediate sprint at Pieve di Teco are swept up by the breakaway.

105km to go

Romain Bardet was said to be suffering from a stomach bug during yesterday's stage, and was pictured holding his stomach in pain at the beginning of today's stage. 

The ascent of the Colle di Nava (cat 3) begins.

The Colle di Nava is just under 8km in length, at an average gradient of 6%, so will pose a challenge to some of the riders, including the sprinters who may have to make up any deficit later in the stage.

The peloton slows the pace to allow the sprinters to conserve energy up the Colle di Nava climb. A smart move, which explains why they did not allow the breakaway to get further away in the earlier stages of the race.

100km to go

Filippo Tagliani begins to lose touch with the rest of the breakaway group on the ascent of Colle di Nava.

Tagliani drops further behind the front four of Eenkhoorn, Prodhomme, van den Berg and Maestri. He's 30 seconds behind now and the gap continues to grow.

The breakaway group of five riders, prior to Tagliani dropping behind.

Let's run down the remaining riders in the breakaway.

The breakaway reaches the summit of the climb of Colle di Nava. Pascal Eenkhoorn (Jumbo Visma) takes the maximum points in the king of the mountains competition.

95km to go

90km to go

The Giro and the fans say goodbye to Romain Bardet.

85km to go

The riders will descend for almost 60km, so expect the pace of the race to be much quicker from here until the next intermediate sprint in San Michele di Moldovi, before a short kicker just afterwards.

80km to go

75km to go

Arnaud Démare currently wears the maglia ciclamino and is one of the favourites to take victory on today's stage. It would be his third stage win in the 2022 Giro, and his eighth overall.

70km to go

65km to go

Mechanical for Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix). He quickly received a new bike and is on his way. He works to re-join the bunch.

With well over half the day's racing already done, the sprinters' teams have their work cut out for them to chase down a motivated breakaway. 

60km to go

Julius van den Berg (EF Education Easypost), Pascal Eenkhoorn (Jumbo Visma), Mirco Maestri (EOLO-Kometa) and Nicolas Prodhomme (AG2R-Citroen) are the four motivated riders who make up the four-man breakaway currently trying to stay away from a peloton in full flow. Can they make their advantage count?

55km to go

With just over 50km remaining, the peloton have upped the pace and are reeling the breakaway back in. The gap stands at 4'39" but is dropping gradually.

50km to go

The peloton rides along the Ligurian coast earlier in the stage.

45km to go

40km to go

The breakaway group of four riders show no interest in the intermediate sprint. They continue to work well together.

The peloton are throwing everything at this chase. Groupama-FDJ and QuickStep-AlphaVinyl work together to try and keep the pace up, but the gap is still only just under 4 minutes. 

35km to go

Four teams and three countries are represented by the four riders in the breakaway today. All the teams aside from Jumbo Visma are looking for their first stage win at this year's Giro.

30km to go

Juan Pedro López sits pretty in the peloton today. It looks likely he will protect his GC lead, and wear the maglia rosa for a tenth day tomorrow.

With the peloton strung out as the sprinters' teams give chase, splits form at the back of the bunch, with Richie Porte of Ineos Grenadiers among those on the wrong side of the split.

The large chasing group behind the main peloton have already lost a fair amount of time. 

25km to go

Israel-Premier Tech and QuickStep Alpha Vinyl continue to drive the peloton but it's currently looking as though the chase will be in vain.

With just over 20km remaining, it's looking more and more likely that today will go to the breakaway, and we will have a first-time grand tour stage winner. 

20km to go

The gap is now at 2'11" with 17.2km remaining. The front group continues to work together but the peloton are flying.

The gap drops below 2 minutes for the first time. 

The stress is visible at the front of the peloton, with the leading riders driving at an extremely high pace. 

15km to go

The gap drops below a minute and a half with 13.3km remaining.

The question is, with the lightning fast pace the peloton is travelling at, will they have the strength left to deliver their sprinters to the line if they do manage to make the catch? 

The four riders in the break power on as they close in on 10km to go. 

10km to go

Under 10km to go, and the gap is about to drop below a minute. There are a number of challenges remaining in this final section of the parcours which may kill off the chances of this valiant front group.

Ten roundabouts to navigate in the final 10km will pose some challenges for the chasing bunch.

The four riders look as though they are beginning to tire. 

QuickStep and Israel Premier Tech continue to lead the chase and it's going down to the wire. 

5km to go

The four breakaway riders are still holding strong, and the gap does not seem to be closing as quickly as it was.

With 3.6km to go, the gap is under half a minute - 27 seconds and closing. It still all hangs in the balance.

For the first time, the peloton are visible on the road behind the breakaway. This is an incredible ride from these four riders whatever happens.

2.4km to go, 23" the gap.

2km to go

Just seconds stand between the front group and the peloton now. It's nerve-wracking stuff.

It looks as though the breakaway's day is done. Heartbreak incoming.

Julius van den Berg (EF) tries to move off the front but the others don't follow. The gap is under 10 seconds.

La Flamme Rouge - 1km to go and it's going to be a sprint finish after all.

Maestri stays at the front and the rest of the sprinters teams line up for the sprint.

Demare launches the sprint.

Arnaud Démare wins stage 13 of the Giro d'Italia

Phil Bauhaus was coming through strongly and almost pipped Arnaud Démare on the line but just missed out in the end.

Arnaud Démare takes the stage win in a nail-biting final sprint.

What an incredible day. The sprinters' teams calculated their advantage to perfection in the end, although for a while it looked as though the breakaway would hold on for the win.

Quotes from today's winner, Arnaud Démare

Today's runner-up, Phil Bauhaus' thoughts on the day...

Reaction from Team DSM's Romain Combaud on Romain Bardet's abandon.

Quotes from the maglia rosa, Juan Pedro López

DSM team coach Matt Winston had this to say on Bardet's DNF.

Read the full story on Bardet's withdrawal from the Giro here

Démare celebrates his stage victory on the final podium today

Here's our report on today's action

We'll have plenty of news and reaction coming from our reporters on the ground. Look out for news from QuickStep, DSM, Ineos and Richard Carapaz, a preview of tomorrow's stage to Turin, and more...

Giro d'Italia: GC standings after stage 13

Giro d'Italia rider of the day: Eenkhoorn drives the break to the edge of glory

Stay tuned for more news and reaction from the Giro through the evening, and be sure to come back tomorrow for more live coverage, reports, and news.

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