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Tirreno-Adriatico stage 5 – Live coverage

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Tirreno-Adriatico: Victory and leader's jersey for Pogacar on stage 4

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Hello and welcome to our live coverage of stage 5 of Tirreno-Adriatico.

At 205km, today's stage is the second-longest of the race, running south to north up the Adriatic coast from Castellalto to Castelfidardo.

Today, the riders will take on a stage which features four and a half laps of a hilly circuit around Castelfidardo at the end. We'll see them take on four climbs of a 1.5km, 10.1 per cent hill in Castelfidardo. The wall features a section of road that reaches 19 per cent gradient, and will be crucial in today's stage.

Of course, the leader's blue jersey changed hands yesterday, with Tadej Pogačar winning the stage up Prati di Tivo. He's in blue while Wout van Aert wears the maglia ciclamino – the sprints jersey.

Read up on what happened during yesterday's stage here with our stage 4 report.

Meanwhile, the peloton have started their ride today, passing kilometre 0 at the start of today's stage. It's all pan flat for the first half of the day.

Today's stage should suit a wealth of riders, not least the winners of the first three stages, Wout van Aert, Mathieu van der Poel, and Julian Alaphilippe. AG2R's Greg Van Avermaet should also be in contention. Here's what he had to say before the start.

The racing has been underway for half an hour, but updates on the state of the race have been scarce. The start has been incredibly fast, though, with the peloton flying along at an average of 57kph so far.

170km to go

Connor Swift gets his chance at the Classics

Finally, we have five riders who have made a gap to the peloton.

The riders have already covered just over 40km on this flat start. It's been a very quick opener.

Here's what race leader Tadej Pogačar had to say about today's stage...

155km to go

A 55kph average speed for the first hour. Crazy...

Now our leaders have extended their advantage to 2:55. The break is set.

Some news this morning concerning the long-running and very complicated Freeman/Sky/British Cycling tribunal, which on Friday saw the doctor found guilty ordering testosterone 'knowing or believing' it was to be given to a rider...

140km to go

A look at today's breakaway, with Ganna in front.

125km to go

A couple of news pieces from yesterday's stage if you want to catch up with the latest from Tirreno-Adriatico...

115km to go

Meanwhile, here's our report on yesterday's summit finish in Paris-Nice. Our live coverage of the final stage will be starting shortly.

A reminder of the climb they'll be tackling four times in this closing half of the stage.

90km to go

Jumbo-Visma are currently massed at the front of the peloton as they tackle the steep slopes.

Lotto Soudal, EF and Arkéa-Samsic are also present towards the front.

80km to go

Van der Poel, Van Aert, Alaphilippe and Pogačar – the big stars and the stage winners so far – are all up towards the front of the peloton. They should all be in contention here.

There's a bit of rain out there now. It looks dry in the peloton though, so it just seems to be affecting a small part of the circuit.

75km to go

Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ) and Chris Juul-Jensen (BikeExchange) have jumped away from the peloton as the rain falls harder.

71km to go

The peloton is strung out at the front now. They're back on dry roads.

Meanwhile, Peter Sagan is out the back of the peloton.

It's raining at the finish as the break pass through. The gap is 1:40 now...

Madouas and Juul-Jensen are caught. That adventure didn't last long.

70km to go

It's down to a minute now for the break. They certainly won't make it to the finish today.

66km to go

They're taking on that steep climb at the moment.

Rickaert drops back from the break to help Van der Poel. The break is just 15 seconds up the road now...

Ballerini has also been caught from the break. Bilbao, Ganna and Stannard remain out front.

Stannard makes a mistake on the wet descent off the climb. He overshoots a corner but stays upright and has to chase back on.

60km to go

Patrick Konrad (Bora-Hansgrohe) slides out at a roundabout.

58km to go

Now it's over for the break, and Van der Poel has attacked again to catch them! Ciccone is on his wheel and Bardet is also in there.

The move doesn't last long, though, as the lead group comes back to make the catch. Van der Poel is still pushing on.

56km to go

Van der Poel has been using quite a bit of energy so far but he let the others chase that Bernal move. That group of five has a gap to the rest as they take on another descent.

53km to go

The weather is still bad out there. It's visibly windy and the rain is still falling.

Van der Poel is pushing on at the front  but the rest of the group isn't going at 100 per cent. The chase group is coming back.

The group is caught but Van der Poel pushes on alone at he takes on some kind of snack from his pocket.

Pogačar has a problem! His chain came off as he changed down the gears when the group turned onto a climb...

He gets some help from a bystander and is now with two teammates making his way back to the front.

49km to go

Nairo Quintana is in trouble at the rear of the group. Marc Soler (Movistar) and Matteo Fabbro (Bora-Hansgrohe) make a move at the front.

Van der Poel heads up the steep Castelfidardo climb again. He's 25 seconds up the road now.

And now the gap jumps up to 35 seconds. RCS timing...

The next group on the road – which contains a miserable-looking Jakob Fuglsang – is almost 3:30 behind Van der Poel.

43km to go

MVDP on the attack.

After a shot of Alaphilippe adjusting hs gloves while wrapped up in rain jacket, the camera cuts to Van der Poel, still in his short-sleeves and bib shorts.

Several riders suffering at the rear of the chase group. Higuita, Nibali, Ciccone among them.

39km to go

Van Aert really needs to win the stages both today and tomorrow (20 bonus seconds) and likely also to drop Pogačar at some point today to stand a chance of winning the race overall. It's unlikely that the final time trial will see much of a gap between the two. 34 seconds is the gap.

Another small group of dropped riders is a further 5 seconds behind the chase group.

35km to go

It's not a comprehensive rundown but here's a list of who I can see in the chase group...

33km to go

The Dutch champion has yet to call the team car for a gilet, jacket or any arm warmers.

Tim Wellens is trying to make a move from the chase group. He's not gaining much ground, though.

29km to go

He can't get it zipped up though...

26km to go

Astana's Fabio Felline puts in an attack from the chase group. I hadn't seen him in there before.

Serrano and De Marchi chase him. They're 15 seconds up on the chase group.

19km to go

Soler, Felline and De Marchi are 2:50 down. The main group is at 3:25.

17km to go

The Slovenian was riding in Van Aert's wheel on the climb before jumping away.

Not much between them on the road but on these slopes it's about 10 seconds already. 

They're grovelling up the climb in ones and twos behind...

Van Aert needed time today but he's only losing it here. He chases solo.

15km to go

25-30 seconds between Pogačar and Van Aert. The Belgian has De Marchi for company.

Pogačar asks for help from his groupmates. They're 2:35 behind Van der Poel while Van Aert and De Marchi are three minutes back.

10km to go

He still has no gloves, warmer or jacket on, by the way.

Pogačar has now left Soler and Felline behind as they tackle another incline.

Off comes Pogačar's jacket and now we see his nice blue jerseye for the first time in a while.

I do like the details on the leader's jerseys at this race...

7km to go

Soler dropped from the Van Aert trio, so it's just him and Felline now.

Pogačar is chipping away at the lead but Van der Poel has it won and has no need to push hard all the way, given his GC position.

5km to go

He's only closing in here, but it should be too late to make a catch.

3km to go

2.5km to go

2km to go

The road ramps up to the line, and now the gap is 20 seconds...

1km to go

500m to go

He's just going to hang on. Wow...

Pogačar can see him but he won't make it.

Van der Poel wins!

That was an incredible finish. Van Aert crossed the line some 50 seconds back.

What a finish that was.

Van der Poel's winning shot...

Pogačar and Van Aert warming down after that crazy stage...

Simon Yates has finished in 21st. He was 5:02 down on Van der Poel.

That will certainly go down as one of the races of the season.

We'll have much more news and reaction from that stage to come through the evening.

Big drama over at the final stage of Paris-Nice. Follow the final 15 kilometres live here.

Here's some brief reaction from Van der Poel after today's stage...

Spoilers here, but here's our breaking news on what has just happened on the final stage at Paris-Nice.

Mathieu van der Poel: I don't even know how I got to the finish line

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