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It was a day of atrocious weather, but that did not hold back Italian Mauro Santambrogio who made the most of his opportunities and took the victory.  Overall race leader Vincenzo Nibali started the initial attack, and was with Santambrogio as he crossed the line. He was content just with the time bonus and the gap to his rivals, gaining more than 30 seconds on the day. Nibali now leads Cadel Evans by 1:26, with third placed Rigoberto Uran at 2:46

Not content to sit back and relax after his 100th career victory, Mark Cavendish wins another sprint this time into Cherasco. His victory was all the more satisfying given the amount of work required to break through and find a gap, but at 350m remaining there was no stopping him.

Cavendish now wins the sprinters classification with 108 points, and if he survives the 3 week race looks to be the clear favourite now in that competition. 

There was no significant changes in the race for the General Classification.

Just 27 years old, but already people are talking about Mark Cavendish as perhaps the greatest sprinter of all time, and today he celebrates his 100th victory of his career. He beat Nacer Bouhanni and Luka Mezgec on a wet but mostly flat stage into Treviso.

In the contest for the general classification, it was another dismal day in the office for Bradley Wiggins, who is suffering with a cold, and was dropped by the leaders group by 1 minute. He falls to 13th place more than 5 minutes behind race leader Vincenzo Nibali, with Cadel Evans second 41 seconds behind.

Ramunas Navardauskas has managed to salvage something for Team Garmin Sharp this Giro by winning with an impressive solo break on Stage 11. Vincenzo Nibali retains his lead overall.

Rigoberto Urán won the first high mountain stage of this years Giro, while his Sky team mate Bradley Wiggins lost more time, on a challenging stage. Race leader Vincenzo Nibali finished in a select group containing Cadel Evans 31 seconds behind Urán, while Wiggins fought hard coming in 68 seconds after Urán.

Team Katusha were initially excluded from the 22 announced teams for the 2013 Giro, but successfully won a spot via an appeal with the Court of Arbitration with Sport. For the second time in this race that persistance has paid off, first with Luca Paolini, and now with Maxim Belkov. The Russian put in a gutsy attack 50km from the finish to win the stage by 44 seconds.

Defending champ Ryder Hesjedal lost valuable time on a day where he struggled to hold on to his group, and eventually finished more than 2 minutes behind Belkov. Hesjedal now sits in 11th spot on the General Classification.

The first Individual Time Trial of this years Giro was won by Alex Dowsett. The Movistar rider rode the 56km course 10 seconds quicker than pre stage favourite Bradley Wiggins. The defending Tour de France champion suffered some bad luck early on in the day with a puncture requiring a bike change, and his speed over the second half of the course gave Dowsett a nervous wait while he waited to see if he'd done enough for the victory.

Today's stage has shuffled the General Classification around, with Italian Vincenzo Nibali in the leader, 29 seconds ahead of Cadel Evans, and Robert Gesink in third place 1:15 behind Nibali. Wiggins has fought back a lot of the time he lost in previous stages, now up to 4th place overall at 1:16.

Australian rider Adam Hansen won Stage 7 after an excellent solo effort, being the only survivor of the days break. Immensely popular within the pro peloton, Hansen is better known as being a workhorse for others. The victory was well celebrated throughout the field with many stating there were no more deserving winners on the day than Hansen.

Mark Cavendish wins his second stage of this years Giro in another display of excellent execution by his Omega Pharma QuickStep team. Elia Viviani took second place, with Matt Goss taking third.

John Degenkolb won a crash affected sprint finish, but did so with a combination of strength, skill, and pure speed. It took strength to power over the two smaller climbs at the end of the otherwise flat stage, skill to avoid going down in a crash in the final kilometre when teammate Luka Mezgec lost grip in the wet conditions, and pure speed to hold a long sprint to the finish in the absence of a lead out train.

After the excitement of yesterdays final climb, there was an air of anticipation on todays stage featuring a final ascent of 907m. In the end though the peloton caught a late break by Danilo Di Luca, and most of the main contenders were content to roll in with the same time as stage winner Enrico Battaglin.

The big loser of the day was Bradley Wiggins, who was caught behind a crash and lost 17 seconds, dropping from 2nd overall to 48th. Luca Paolini retains his Maglia Rosa as race leader.

36 year old Italian veteran Luca Paolini is celebrating today with a late solo attack that gave him the stage victory and the race leaders Pink Jersey. Stage 3 took an unexpected turn with the final climb when defending champion Ryder Hesjedal attacked and caused some serious ripples in amongst the main contenders. His efforts secured him third place for the stage, behind Cadel Evans who pipped him on the line. Evans and Hesjedal gained valuable bonus seconds in their quests for the general classification.

Team Sky have played an early card with a strong win on Ischia Island for the team time trial. The short 17km course was highly technical, and some teams including Mark Cavendish's Omega Pharma Quickstep found it difficult to get into a rhythm and eventually finished 17th of the 23 racing. As a result Cavendish lost the race leaders pink jersey, now held by young Italian Salvatore Puccio for Sky. GC favourite Bradley Wiggins is in 2nd place, after gaining valuable seconds over his rivals.

The first Grand Tour of 2013 is underway, and in the manner of so many of the Grand Tour sprint stages of 2012, it was won by Mark Cavendish. On a day where temperatures hit 30c, the Englishman who is now riding for Belgian team Omega Pharma - Quickstep showed he has not forgotten how to finish off a fast day, and indeed he was forced to work extra hard for the victory.

Cavendish finished strongly ahead of young Italian sprinter Elia Viviani from Cannondale Pro Cycling, with FDJ's Nacer Bouhanni in third place.

The 96th edition of the world second largest Grand Tour will start in Naples Italy on May 4th. This year 23 teams are scheduled to participate the 21 stages over 3 weeks, with super stars Bradley Wiggins, Cadel Evans, and last years surprise champion Ryder Hesjedal competing.

The course this year has outstanding variety. Early on in Stage 2, there is a Team Time Trial to mix up the traditional sprint stages of the first week. Stage 8 sees an Individual Time Trial of 56km in length. The first rest day comes after Stage 9, and then week 2 begins. Three stages in the high mountains culiminate with a legendary ascent of the Col du Galibier in France, right before the second rest day.

Week three looks brutal, containing a mountain time trial, and two nasty high mountain stages before the final flat stage into the finish in Brescia.