Giro d’Italia 2022, stage seven – live updates from tough Apennine mountain test

The entire peloton is on high alert, teams and riders watching every move. Lennard Kämna (Bora-Hansgrohe) clipped off, but the German was pounced on by race leader Juan Pedro López​ (Trek-Segafredo) who is clearly in no mood to give up his maglia rosa without a fight. Richard Carapaz and his Ineos Grenadiers team-mate Jhonatan Narváez ghosted off the front on a descent to cause panic back in the bunch, but again the south Americans were soon reunited with the reduced peloton. The opening 75km of the stage has been raced at a very high tempo, causing the grupetto to firm earlier than may have been expected. If they keep riding at this speed, there may be some riders leaving the race this afternoon if they fail to finish within the time limit.

Speaking of rider who will not be on the start line on Saturday, Michael Morkov (Quick Step-Alpha Vinyl) was a non-starter, Mark Cavendish’s lead-out man has been suffering with a fever overnight. Owain Doull (EF Education-EasyPost), Sergio Samitier (Movistar) and Samuele Zoccarato (Bardiani-CSF-Faizane), meanwhile, abandoned during the early couple of hours of the stage.

Back on the road, Koen Bouwman (Jumbo-Visma), Woet Poels (Bahrain Victorious), Davide Villella (Cofidis) bridged over to Davide Formolo (UAE Team Emirates) at the front of the race, while Tom Dumoulin (Jumbo-Visma) set off in pursuit of the leading quartet before the Dutchman was joined by compatriot Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) and Diego Camargo (EF Education-EasyPost). That chasing trio finally bridged over, to swell the leading group to seven strong with 122.5km of this barn-stormer of a stage to go.