Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the penultimate stage of Tirreno-Adriatico.
Today's stage takes the riders up and over Monte Carpegna twice as the queen stage of the race. Pogačar vs Evenepoel for the overall.
The six kilometre climb averages 9.9 per cent and was a favourite of Marco Pantani, with the Italian training on the climb before his main goals of the season.
The peloton will roll 2.4km through the neutral zone.
There will be almost 180km of racing before the riders hit Carpegna. On the way it's mostly flat and rolling roads, with one climb and one intermediate sprint en route.
The official start has been given and the stage is underway. 155 riders kick off stage 6.
Arkéa-Samsic riders Thibault Guernalec and Dan McLay are the two non-starters today.
The opening kilometres of the stage are run downhill, so the pace is fast from the off. Attacks fly at the front of the peloton as riders fight for the breakaway.
210km to go
No moves have gone just yet.
We're also live at Paris-Nice today as the riders take on the Col de Turini.
The riders are zipping along to start the day. So far no breakaway.
Here's what race leader Tadej Pogačar said before the stage...
"It's the history of cycling. Today we ride on a historical climb. I think there's a lot of riders that feel really good here. Today is a good test for everybody.
"I don't like it so cold. I'd prefer it warm but normally in cold weather my legs are fine. At the top it should be 3°C. I hope we don't freeze downhill.
"For now all the top 10 are pretty dangerous. But as I saw Remco and Vingegaard have a good kick and good legs. But today is a different race."
(Image credit: Getty Images)
The downhill section is interrupted by an unclassified hill. A good time for a break to jump away?
A look at the jersey holders as today's stage got underway a little while ago.
Tadej Pogačar is in blue as race leader. Pogačar leads the ciclamino jersey points classification and the white jersey young riders classification but Remco Evenepoel and Thymen Arensman wear them on his behalf. Quinn Simmons wears green as KOM leader.
(Image credit: RCS Sport)
195km to go
Up the climb, four men have a gap on the peloton.
Benoît Cosenfroy (AG2R Citroën) is out front with Marco Haller (Bora-Hansgrohe), Davide Bais (Eolo-Kometa), and Alexander Konychev (BikeExchange-Jayco).
Davide Bais has been out in the break a couple of times already in this race. He formerly held the green mountains jersey and will be looking to grab it back today. He lies 5 points down on Quinn Simmons.
Israel-Premier Tech and Trek-Segafredo lead the peloton behind. They are 30 seconds down on the break.
190km to go
A counter-attacking group tries to make it away.
Now 20 seconds for the break as the counter-attackers are caught.
180km to go
Jhonatan Narváez (Ineos Grenadiers) is forced to abandon after a crash.
Meanwhile, 10 men are on the attack now. 20 seconds back to the peloton.
The riders are back on the downhill here. Not too steep but still a fast pace.
Some big names in the new breakaway, which now has a minute on the peloton...
Cosenfroy, Haller, Konychev and Bais have been joined by Alex Aranburu and Lluis Mas (Movistar Team), Julian Alaphilippe and Mikkel Honoré (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team), and Quinn Simmons (Trek-Segafredo).
175km to go
That should be our final break of the day.
A 46.6kph average speed so far.
160km to go
3:25 for the break now, a comfortable gap as they roll along the flat roads.
It's a calm situation out on the road at the moment.
The same can't quite be said of Paris-Nice, which has seen 154 riders at the start of the race turn into just 102 today.
Groupama-FDJ's Kevin Geniets is one of the latest riders to leave the race after a freak accident at the start.
Narváez on the ground after his crash earlier on. He has looked on top form recently; hopefully the Ecuadorian is not too badly hurt.
(Image credit: Tim de WaeleGetty Images)
150km to go
We're set to see a battle between Simmons and Bais for KOM points today. Under 20km to go until the first climb of the stage.
A busy for us as we have three live reports on the go. As well as Tirreno-Adriatico and Paris-Nice we have live coverage of the Ronde van Drenthe!
UAE Team Emirates and Arkéa-Samsic are among the teams working at the head of the peloton at the moment.
Here's what Remco Evenepoel had to say before the start.
"It's another day. First we need to feel the legs and we'll see what happens.
"Today will be a very hard stage and very cold as well. I think the most important thing will be to stay warm in the descents and try the second time up Carpegna with fresh legs and a good feeling.
"We all know that the two best climbers from last year's Tour de France are here so I think my only goal is to follow them."
The Belgian also told of how he has improved in stressful situations and how he and his team has worked on his descending and confidence.
Four minutes between break and peloton at the moment.
The riders are tackling a hilly mid-section to the stage now, though the climbs are uncategorised.
Among the highlights from yesterday's stage was when the GC attackers took a wrong turn in mid-flight. The error almost certainly confirmed the stage win for Warren Barguil, though the trio didn't lose any time as a result.
Meanwhile, the break have gone over the climb at Mombaroccio. It was Simmons vs Bais on the hill and the American prevailed, adding five points to his KOM lead.
Simmons now has 20 points to Bais' 13.
120km to go
The gap remains at around the four-minute mark, currently 4:20
The two climbs of Monte Carpegna give 15 points each, by the way.
Still 4:20 between break and peloton at the moment.
UAE Team Emirates, Jumbo-Visma and Bahrain Victorious among the squads represented at the front of the peloton.
64km to go
The gap to the peloton has dipped under four minutes as things speed up a little. Still some 25km to go until the start of the first ascent of Monte Carpegna.
3:30 now as the peloton keeps chipping away at the break's lead.
Here's a reminder of the climb as the break hit the bottom.
(Image credit: RCS Sport)
Alaphilippe, Aranburu, Mas, Cosnefroy, Simmons still all together.
1:25 to the peloton now.
Simmons can take 15 points and virtually seal the KOM jersey at the top here. His big worry might be a long-range attack from the likes of Tadej Pogačar...
36km to go
Simmons at the read of the group but Cosnefroy drops first.
Mas is dropped after working hard for Aranburu.
He's sticking it out a few bike lengths behind, though.
Diego Rosa (Eolo-Kometa) attacks from the peloton, which is a minute down on the break now.
Rosa is on six KOM points to Simmons' 20.
The Italian passes through corner which has a giant poster of Marco Pantani draped on the side, his name daubed on the road, and various banners on the side of the road.
Here's what Pogačar had to say after the finish...
"First thank you to all the team again. Really amazing work and they bring me to the last climb, and I had good legs so yeah, we decided to go for it. Marc did a good pace at the start, there were some attacks, and I decided to go to my own pace at the top.
"I tried my best to get warm because it was super cold today. I'm super happy to take the win because the team was working so hard the last few days, so it's really hats off to them.
"When the guys are pulling all day into the headwind for 200 kilometres every day, to take the stage win on such an important day is a really good feeling.
"It's one more stage so we still need to keep calm and we'll see tomorrow. I hope that Pascal [Ackermann] recovers from these days hard work to do the sprint tomorrow but anyway we're going to be happy."
Pogačar leads the race overall as well as the points and young rider's classifications. Quinn Simmons holds the other jersey at the race, the green climber's jersey.
Second-placed Jonas Vingegaard said that there was no chance of matching Pogačar today.
"I was already on the limit so I was just like 'ok, I let him...' I didn't even think about trying to go with him. He's just incredible today and so much better than everybody else.
"I'm pretty satisfied. The only bad thing, if you can say that, was my time trial. Other than that, I'm happy with my week here."
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