Giro d'Italia stage 10 as it happened: Valentin Paret-Peintre wins as Pogačar keeps lead

Here's the general classification coming into today's stage:

1. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates, in 28:14:42
2. Daniel Felipe Martínez (Col) Bora-Hansgrohe, +2:40
3. Geraint Thomas (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers, +2:58
4. Ben O’Connor (Aus) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, +3:39
5. Cian Uijtdebroeks (Bel) Visma-Lease a Bike, +4:02
6. Antonio Tiberi (Ita) Bahrain Victorious, +4:23
7. Lorenzo Fortunato (Ita) Astana Qazaqstan, +5:15
8. Einer Rubio (Col) Movistar, +5:28
9. Thymen Arensman (Ned) Ineos Grenadiers, +5:30
10. Jan Hirt (Cze) Soudal Quick-Step, +5:53

Visma-Lease a Bike are just having no luck this year. 

The team announced on social media this morning that Olav Kooij, the winner of stage nine in Naples, is unable to start today's stage due to illness. 

Other riders have been forced to abandon the race and we'll bring you news of all of those in a moment. 

Will Pogačar triumph again?

The rest of the GC contenders must be getting pretty sick of Tadej Pogačar winning at every possible opportunity during this race. 

There's simply been no stopping the Slovenian. 

Speaking during yesterday's rest day press conference, Pogačar said he would continue to target stage wins during the rest of the race as he continues his seemingly inevitable charge to overall victory. 

He even hinted that today could be yet another day for him. 

"If there’s a similar situation to Prati di Tivo tomorrow, we can aim again for victory," he said. "We’re thinking day by day and keeping each other together as the last day of this week might possibly be the hardest I've ever done. 

"I’m super excited to go to Livigno over the Mortirolo, where I've trained a lot before so I'm really looking forward to that stage."

Do you think Pogačar will win again today? Get in touch and let us know. 

Here's the route for today. 

142 kilometres with over 2,500 metres of elevation gain. 

It's not the most testing of mountain stages but could still see some splits on the final climb. 

Astana Qazaqstan are also now a man down at this year's Giro. 

Max Kanter is another rider that appears to have gone down with illness. 

Ethan Vernon abandons due to illness

Ethan Vernon is another rider that's been forced to abandon due to suffering with sickness. 

The British rider is targeting the Olympics this summer so said he doesn't want to risk his symptoms getting worse. 

We've had another abandon come through. Marius Mayrhofer (Tudor Pro Cycling) won't be on the start line this morning. 

Before the riders roll out at 12:15 gmt, let's remind ourselves of how things look in the other classifications. 

Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) leads in the sprint competition, Cian Uijtdebroeks (Visma-Lease a Bike) leads the best young rider classification and that man, Tadej Pogačar, unsurprisingly leads the mountains classification. 

The riders have now rolled out of the unofficial start. We've got a few mins of neutralised racing now as they make their way to kilometre 0.

Looks like Rod Ellingworth is in one of the Giro race director's cars today. 

Ellingworth is the new race director for both the men's and women's Tours of Britain. 

And the flag is dropped. 

141.6 km to go: We've got a big fight for the breakaway from the gun. 

An Israel-Premier Tech rider is straight off up the road with an Alpecin-Deceuninck rider on his wheel. Looks like its Simon Clarke for Israel and Quinten Hermans for Alpecin.

134 km to go: Clarke and Hermans have a gap of about 20 seconds but there are several riders attempting to join them. 

130km to go: Hello, its Adam Becket here taking over while Tom goes for his lunch. I'm hungry already. Clarke and Hermans have almost 30 seconds on the peloton, but attacks are still coming, although the road is a bit blocked behind. Now EF Education-EasyPost, Arkéa-B&B Hotels and others are trying, as is an Ineos Grenadiers rider...

128km to go: It's Magnus Sheffield (Ineos Grenadiers) who's on the front, as the peloton is all stretched out once again. Whenever I'm watching the Giro, it seems to refuse to quiet down. Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal Quick-Step) is also up there.

127km to go: The advantage is down to just 11 seconds now. Andrea Piccolo (EF Education-EasyPost) is the man leading the charge, followed by his teammate Jefferson Cepeda.

126km to go: Everyone wants to be in this breakaway, it seems. There is no rest. 

124km to go: Louis Barre (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) looks like he has come off his bike slightly. Not the time for that.

123km to go: Alessandro De Marchi (Jayco AlUla) has caught Clarke and Hermans, who have just 11 seconds on the peloton. The elastic is yet to snap, that's for sure.

121km to go: EF Education-EasyPost are not sleeping on this stage. Stefan De Bod is putting it all in to get up the road. Could this be the quartet? It's not a lot of time.

120km to go: There's a lot of head shaking from Clarke and De Marchi here. They're trying to get Hermans to work, one supposes. But it's all reasonably performative.

118km to go: De Bod, by the way, is in no-man's land, and is about to be caught. The front of the peloton is still very strung out.

115km to go: The race has averaged 53km/h for the first half an hour, by the way. The trio up front - De Marchi, Hermans, and Clarke - now have 30 seconds again. And breathe.

110km to go: The peloton is trying to shut any further attacks down it seems, but is that sustainable? Henok Mulubrhan (Astana Qazaqstan) is among the latest attackers. There's a lot of riders trying to get up the road. Jhonatan Narváez (Ineos Grenadiers) is going too. It's all happening. 

106km to go: Race situation update - Simon Clarke (Israel-Premier Tech), Quinten Hermans (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Alessandro De Marchi (Jayco-AlUla) remain up front, now with an advantage of 53 seconds.

Behind, the peloton has not slowed down, despite that gap. The attacks keep coming. 

103km to go: I would tell you who was in the latest attack, but this feels reasonably futile until something has actually established itself. The trio out front now have a minute, and there are 11ish riders trying to escape.

100km to go: As the Giro's TV director decided to show us a castle, another attack happened. There's Bardiani, Astana, Groupama-FDJ, dsm-firmenich PostNL and Intermarché-Wanty all trying now.

98km to go: The five riders chasing are Simone Velasco (Astana-Qazaqstan), Clément Davy (Groupama-FDJ), Lilian Calmejane (Intermarché-Wanty), Gijs Leemreize (dsm-firmenich PostNL) and Giulio Pellizzari (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè). That might be it.

96km to go: Yeah, that's not happening. Apologies for cursing this group. Velasco is still trying but the peloton are just there. The trio up the road only have 52 seconds on the bunch, too.

95km to go: Spare a thought for Clarke, Hermans and De Marchi, who have been racing at full speed while not getting any help from behind. You feel they need more than three riders to last to the finish.

94km to go: Attacks go again, and peloton has attempted to block the road behind. There are two Visma-Lease a Bike riders in there, including Attila Valter, and Filippo Ganna of Ineos Grenadiers. This is a powerful move.

92km to go: Riders are still trying to get up the road. Things are still LOUD.

91km to go: The nine riders in between the peloton and the trio up front are Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers), Henok Mulubrhan and Simone Velasco (both Astana-Qazaqstan), Simon Geschke (Cofidis), Aurélien Paret-Peintre (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Andrea Bagioli (Lidl-Trek), Edoardo Affini and Attila Valter (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Luca Covili (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè). They are 30 seconds behind the break out front. The climbing has also begun.

89km to go: Hermans has been dropped up front. Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) took some points there at the first intermediate sprint. It rather looks like everything is coming back together...

87km to go: Just Simon Clarke (Israel-Premier Tech) and Alessandro De Marchi (Jayco AlUla) remain up the road now, 28 seconds ahead of the peloton. We've had an hour of hectic racing.

79km to go: Tom Thewlis back here and ready to take you through to the finish. 

79km to go: Not a good sign for Jayco-AIUla's Luke Plapp whose disappearing off the back of the bunch. 

We're on the day's uncategorised climb and the gradients are starting to bite. 

Meanwhile we've got a nicely sized little group trying to get across to De Marchi and Clarke at the head of the race.

Simone Velasco and Davide Ballerini (Astana Qazaqstan)
Simon Geschke (Cofidis)
Jimmy Janssens (Alpecin Deceuninck)
Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal Quick-Step)
Valentin Paret-Peintre (Decathlon- AG2R La Mondiale)
Esteban Chaves (EF Education-EasyPost)
Andrea Bagioli and Juanpe Lopez (Lidl-Trek)
Romain Bardet (dsm firmenich post NL)
Michael Hepburn (Jayco-AIUla)
Martin Marcellusi (VF Group - Bardiani CSF - Faizane) 

 ^^ That's your chase group behind the two lone leaders.

Alaphilippe is desperate for a stage win. Great to see him animating the race again. 

Looks like a handful of other riders have moved over to the chase group from the peloton. 

Looks like Jan Tratnik from Visma-Lease a Bike is one of them. 

Juanpe Lopez is hammering it down this descent now. 

Looks like Tobias Foss has also joined the chase group for Ineos Grenadiers. 

70 km to go: The chase group are 30 seconds away from the front of the race now. 

It's 1:20 back to the peloton containing all the overall favourites. As things stand, it looks like Tadej Pogacar and UAE Emirates are willing to let the breakaway go today. 

Tobias Foss (Ineos Grenadiers), Jan Tratnik (Visma-Lease a Bike), Damiano Caruso (Bahrain Victorious) and Domenico Pozzovivo (Bardiani) are all of the riders that have joined the chase group. 

Ooooft! That was sketchy,

A large labrador just wondered off the pavement into the middle of that chase group. That very nearly caused a nasty crash indeed. 

Thankfully, it looks like all of the riders and indeed the dog are ok. 

The two leaders (De Marchi and Clarke) and the chase group are all onto the first major climb of the day, the Camposauro, which is ranked as a category 2 climb (6.1 km at 7.5%).

64km to go: The chase group are working nicely as a group as they try to get back on terms with Clarke and De Marchi. 

Alaphilippe is just at the back of the group for a moment, grabbing a fresh water bottle from a soigneur at the roadside. 

63km to go: The chase group have literally just caught De Marchi and Clarke. 

62 km to go: So the breakaway's advantage currently stands at 2:50.

It's looking good for them as things stand. 

News has just filtered through that the Stelvio pass has been pulled from this year's Giro. 

There's been significant snow fall on the mountain recently which means organisers have been forced to cut it from the route. 

The mountain was set to feature on stage 16 and was this year's Cima Coppi. 

RCS say that the new Cima Coppi will be the Giogo di Santa Maria/Umbrailpass at 2489 metres. 

The Cima Coppi is the name of the prize on offer for the first rider over the biggest mountain in each Giro d'italia

Here's Vincenzo Nibali in action on the Stelvio back in 2020. 

Anyway back to the action. 

40km to go: The break now have 3:40 on the peloton. 

Julian Alaphilippe is at the back of the group speaking to the doctors car at the moment. Hopefully its nothing major thats bothering him. 

38 km to go: Looks like Clarke and De Marchi are long gone from this front group now. The duo evidently have paid for their previous efforts. 

Tobias Foss is also struggling in the breakaway. He seems to be yo-yoing off the back of that large lead group. 

According to the television reporters, the rain is hammering down at the finish at Bocca della Selva. 

Vastly different from the weather conditions further back on the road. 

As we approached the top of that uncategorised bump in the road several riders jumped off the front of the lead group. 

Fiorelli from Bardiani was the first rider to go with the aim of grabbing the Intergiro competition prize and points in the ciclamino competition. 

Jan Tratnik (Visma-Lease a Bike) countered over the top and is now at the head of the race. 

31km to go:  We've got four riders behind that move from Tratnik now. 

Romain Bardet is one of them. Andrea Bagioli, Marco Frigo (Israel-Premier Tech) and Valentin Paret-Peintre (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) are the others.  

Today's stage will almost definitely be contested by someone from this breakaway now. 

26 km to go: Tratnik has more than six minutes on the peloton at the head of the race.

The group led by Bardet is 33 seconds away from the Slovenian. The rest of the chase group is a minute back from Tratnik. 

Bardet is riding himself back into the top ten in the general classification here, but it looks like they're losing time on Tratnik. 

The Slovenian is 38 seconds ahead of the Bardet group now and is showing no sign of relenting. 

Bardet is going to have to jump at some point once the climb starts if he wants to bridge across. 

The roads look pretty slick here as we gradually get towards the base of the final climb. 

Tratnik very nearly came unstuck on a couple of damp corners just now. 

His lead is about 30 seconds over the Bardet group at the moment. 

20 km to go:

Tratnik has just taken three bonus seconds at the final sprint point of the day at Cusano Mutri. 

Bardet took two behind him.  

We're onto Bocca della Selva now. 

Ineos Grenadiers have amassed on the front of the peloton. Is Geraint Thomas about to try and grab some time back?

Meanwhile at the head of the race, Tratnik has put ten seconds into the Bardet group. 

Jan Tratnik is absolutely flying. He has a minute now on the Bardet group. 

Further back down the road, Jhonotan Narváez is on the front of the peloton now for Ineos Grenadiers. 

13 km to go: Marco Frigo has been dropped from the Bardet group. 

12km to go: Paret-Peintre and Bardet drop Bagioli. It's now or never really if they want to bridge across to Tratnik. 

10 km to go: The jump from Bardet and Paret-Peintre has shaved a bit of time off Tratnik's lead but not much. 

He's got 45 seconds on the French duo still as they drop under the ten kilometre to go mark. 

9km to go: Tratnik looks like he's starting to tire now. 

6 km to go: Tratnik still has 40 seconds on the chasers. They can see him up ahead though as they tackle a relatively straight section on the climb. They're going to struggle to catch Tratnik at this rate. 

Bardet and Paret-Peintre need to up this tempo ASAP. 

Tratnik is clearly on a great day. 

Tratnik launched his initial attack with more than 37 kilometres left to race. This has been some effort from the Slovenian. 

3.6 km to go: Caruso is pacing on the front of the peloton now for Bahrain.

They're determined to keep Antonio Tiberi in sixth place if they can help it. 

Woah. 

Valentin Paret-Peintre has just jumped Romain Bardet and is about to catch Tratnik. 

 2.7 km to go: It's all over for Tratnik. Paret-Peintre is about to catch him. 

He's gone straight past the Slovenian and is on his way to victory now. 

Looks like we're  about to get some GC action behind. 

Antonio Tiberi attacks for Bahrain Victorious. 

Pogačar is straight onto his wheel in the maglia rosa

Paret-Peintre wins the stage for Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale. 

Romain Bardet grabs second

We'll have a stage report for you shortly. 

Here goes Ben O'Connor. He's looking to claw time back on the GC. 

Cian Ujtdebroeks was distanced there which forced O'Connor to play his hand. 

Behind, there was not much change in the group of favourites. Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) tried something, but ended up gaining no time on Dani Martínez (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers).

The Slovenian remains in the pink jersey, 2:40 ahead of Martínez. 

Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, by the way, have won an astonishing 15 times this season. Last year they managed just nine. Is it all down to their new Van Rysel bikes?

Cian Uijtdebroeks (Visma-Lease a Bike) lost a bit of time today, 13 seconds in fact, as did Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain-Victorious), who dropped four. They still maintain their fifth and sixth places on GC, however. Romain Bardet (dsm-firmenich PostNL), meanwhile, has jumped up to seventh overall thanks to his exploits in the break. 

Here is the initial race report of a big day for the breakaway in Italy.