Hello, and welcome to Cycling Weekly's live coverage of stage 5 of the Giro d'Italia. With live racing now harder (see: more expensive) to watch in the UK, we thought we would bring you updates from some of the key stages of the 108th edition of the Italian Grand Tour. The first of those live blogs comes today, with an unpredictable, punchy stage in the south of Italy.
81km to go: Still on a dual carriageway.
91km to go: The riders are barreling down a dual carriageway at the moment. The race is heading west along Italy's southern coast on the Ionian Sea.
97km to go: We're now into the final 100km. Little has changed over the last hour of racing. We still have a breakaway trio, and Lidl-Trek's Jacopo Mosca is still pulling in the peloton.
101km to go: The next 50km are pan flat until the riders reach the 'Red Bull Kilometre' in Bernalda, with around 50km to go.
109km to go: The intermediate sprint in Massafra is won by Epis ahead of Bais.
115km to go: The riders are now descending gradually to the first of three individual sprints today. That comes in around 7km.
120km to go: The breakaway is being kept on a tight leash. Their advantage is now just 1:45. Mosca is still hammering the front for Lidl-Trek.
Here's Mads Pedersen in his pink skinsuit ahead of the start today.
130km to go: The average speed so far is 43.7kph, slightly slower than yesterday's stage average of almost 47kph.
As an aside, I enjoyed this video Lidl-Trek shared ahead of the race of Mosca having his head shaved like a monk.
136km to go: The gap is now over 2:30. Lidl Trek's Jacopo Mosca is leading the bunch behind.
140km to go: Let's honour the breakaway trio's bravery by learning a bit more about them.
147km to go: Movistar's Lorenzo Milesi joins the two escapees to form an all-Italian trio. The gap to the peloton is over a minute.
150km to go: We've got two early takers for the breakaway – Giosuè Epis (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) and Davide Bais (Polti VisitMalta).
151km to go: I (Tom Davidson) have now seized back the reins from Adam, just as stage five begins. Here comes the battle for the breakaway.
If you're working out who is who, Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) is in the pink jersey, Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease a Bike) is in purple for points, Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek) is in the white young rider's jersey, while Lorenzo Fortunato (XDS Astana) is the man in blue, for leading the mountains classification.
We have answers to many of your questions, but please do email me - adam.becket@futurenet - if we can answer any others.
While Tom is away, it's Adam Becket here, just with a couple of updates before today's stage gets underway.
I'm off to grab a sandwich before the stage begins. I suggest you do the same. Rendez-vous back here in 45 minutes or so.
I've never been to Matera but I've just been told by a friend that it's a "fascinating" place.
The last time the Giro d'Italia finished in Matera was in 2020, when Arnaud Démare, then of Groupama-FDJ, outsprinted the pack.
Here's how the GC looks going into stage five:
Today's stage will roll out at 13:50 local time – that's 12:50 in the UK.
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