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General classification after stage 15
1 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana Pro Team 62:02:34
2 Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team 0:01:26
3 Rigoberto Uran Uran (Col) Sky Procycling 0:02:46
4 Mauro Santambrogio (Ita) Vini Fantini-Selle Italia 0:02:47
5 Michele Scarponi (Ita) Lampre-Merida 0:03:53
6 Przemyslaw Niemiec (Pol) Lampre-Merida 0:04:55
7 Carlos Alberto Betancur Gomez (Col) AG2R La Mondiale 0:05:12
8 Rafal Majka (Pol) Team Saxo-Tinkoff 0:05:32
9 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale 0:05:39
10 Benat Intxausti Elorriaga (Spa) Movistar Team 0:05:51

Visconti though takes the stage. He was suspended at the end of 2012 for three months by CONI for his links to Dr Ferrari. There's no denying he deserved today's stage. He formed part of the early move and then dropped his companions on the Telegraphe.

Betancur finishes second. As Scarponi then leads Nibali and Evans home with a group that also contains Uran.

Now he gets out of the saddle and he comes to the line and takes stage 15.

He grits his teeth and pushes on. 250 to go.

Nibali is just marking Evans at the moment.

Majka is going after the AG2R rider.

And now Evans attacks but it's marked by Nibali.

Now   Duarte goes again.

Visconti rides through the fog as Nibali goes again with Betancur and Majka

1.6km to go and Visconti just has 1'34 left.

And now Nibali attacks.

Uran Evans, Scarponi , Nibali all still together.

Visconti now looks down the climb to  see the carnage behind him.

And there's an attack from Lampre. I'm not sure if it's Scarponi though.

And now the snow is coming down heavily. Visconti only has 3km to go  as Astana lift the pace.

Nibali will be happy with this so far. He's kept all his main rivals in check.

Visconti is heading for a famous win here on stage 15 with just 4km to go.

He's marked by a rider from Cannondale as Visconti now leads by 1'02. It's Caruso who has joined Sanchez.

There's now snow on the Galibier for the riders.

It looks like Rabottini has cracked.

Visconti has managed to pull a few second out of Rabottini and the gap is up to 43 seconds.

Garate has been caught. As Nibali uses his two last men on the front. Evans leads the race leader as Kelderman now attacks.

It looks as though the Gesink group has been caught. Hence Garate's attack.

Rabottini does now have  a gap over Weening and Pirazzi and he's also closed to within 42 seconds of Visconti.

Visconti still have 2'48 on Nibali and Evans as Bentacur follows at an attack out from the peloton.

It's still the Blanco leader doing the majority of the work though.

Rabottini has now attacked but Weening and Pirazzi seem to have this one under control.

The Movistar man has 59 seconds on Weening.

Roughly 5km of descent for Visconti as he pushes on. He has 14km to go.

The rest of the chase group has made it's way back up to Gesink who again allows Henao to come through and take a turn.

Herrada is being paced up the climb by his Movistar team car. It takes a while but a race official finally spots it and points an angry finger at the car and the rider.

Not good enough. Gesink moves up and simply pushes past and leaves the group.

Gesink has plenty of riders with him but he's not asking nor is he getting any help. As Evans sits on Nibali's wheel in the peloton.

Visconti still leads as he goes in search of valuable KOM points. And Di Luca is struggling with the pace being set by Gesink.

Now Herrada jumps out of the peloton. These little attacks will start to wear down Astana but at the moment they're sticking to their tempo.

As the Henao and Gesink groups link up it's Gesink who attacks and then Di Luca also jumps out from the peloton.

More attacks from the peloton but Astana bring this move back instantly.

The Sky climber is going to try and bridge up to Gesink and force Astana to really chase. Gesink's  move has now drawn out Kiserlovski who joins Henao.

It looks like the Spanish Dutch axis have 30 seconds though. Gesink is 6;40 down on GC.

Weening is leading the break as Visconti is now starting to struggle. Only Weening and Pirazzi are leading now.

And Gesink has kicked again and the rest of the group are struggling to get on his wheel. Astana move back up to the front of the group and start to set the tempo. Martinez has joined up with Gesink.

And it looks like Gesink has attacked. He's clear with a rider from Lotto and one from Garmin.

Nibali and the Astana sharks move up on the outside of the peloton. He knows that it's time to pay attention to every move that Evans makes.

The leaders have 30km to go as they start to climb. It wont be long until the peloton have them insight though.

AG2R have two  decent climbers in the race who could do very well today but there's not much responsibility on Lotto's shoulders but still they continue to do a lot of work on the front of the field.

A reminder of where we stand on GC coming into the stage:

1 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana Pro Team 57:20:52
2 Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team 0:01:26
3 Rigoberto Uran Uran (Col) Sky Procycling 0:02:46
4 Mauro Santambrogio (Ita) Vini Fantini-Selle Italia 0:02:47
5 Michele Scarponi (Ita) Lampre-Merida 0:03:53
6 Przemyslaw Niemiec (Pol) Lampre-Merida 0:04:55
7 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) Ag2R La Mondiale 0:05:12
8 Rafal Majka (Pol) Team Saxo-Tinkoff 0:05:32
9 Carlos Alberto Betancur Gomez (Col) Ag2R La Mondiale 0:05:39
10 Benat Intxausti Elorriaga (Spa) Movistar Team 0:05:51

Lotto now just set the pace on the front of the peloton, AG2R have put a rider on the front of the peloton too. The lead is at 5 minutes now.

The gap is still at around the 6 minute mark. It's all going to boil down to this final climb. Everything up until that point has been window dressing. Legs will be fresh so it will be interesting to see what happens, and will we see the favourites attack from the lower slopes of the climb.

You can find all our Giro d'Italia video right here.

Andreas Klier is on the side of the road is handing out bottles for Garmin.

Astana continue to set the pace on the front of the peloton as the lead to the break goes out to 5'03.

Weening only has 23 seconds on the chasers but he's pressing on with his efforts.

Weening has discarded his jacket and then moves back onto the drops as Visconiti is joined by Rabottini.

Weening has 30 seconds over the chase, the peloton are at 2'29.

Weening is actually alone and off the front with Pirazzi in the chase group by 30 seconds.

It looks like the group that formed at the top of the climb is pushing on a bit here.

Pirazzi is clear now while Chalapud has been caught by a chase group that includes Visconti and Weening.

Pirazzi takes maximum points and then sits up.

We've got a bit of action at the top of the climb, with riders going to the KOM points. Pirazzi is in the mix but he's being pushed here by Chalapud. The two riders have a gap at the moment.

So much debate about whether the mont cenis would be included in today's stage. The peloton are just about to crest the top of the climb but it's been neutralised in terms of racing.

Riders have started to wrap up for the descent. Paolini zips up his jacket and covers his face up too. The last few riders are returning from the team cars with extra layers for the long run down the climb of Mont Ceris.

The riders are still 6km from the very top of the climb. There's still no news on when the riders will kick in and start racing.

Gianni Savio has talked about his team and the battle between Nibali and Evans. You can watch the video here.

The peloton continue to ride together towards the top of the mont cenis.

The race is still being neutralized on the climb by what appears to be the riders' intent to show solidarity.

At the back of the field Pablo Lastras has dropped back to the Movistar team car. There are a number of riders coming through the cars as riders find the right mix of clothing for the stage.

Bauer and Wurf are on the front of the bunch at the moment and having a conversation. Still no attacks from the front of the peloton.

Astana are riding tempo on the front of the bunch but it's already caused a bit of damage with riders dropping off the back..

From here's it's a 25km slog to the top of the climb, with an average gradient of 6 per cent. Depending on the pace the peloton takes, the descent is perhaps a trickier obstacle, with sub zero temperatures expected.

The compact peloton have almost reached Susa and will start climbing in the next couple of kilometres.

In the race for the points jersey Cavendish currently holds a healthy lead. However with mountain stages on the menu for much of the next week we can probably see Evans take that jersey back - assuming he carries his current level of form.

Evans won't target the jersey specifically, but he'll pick up point in the mountains whereas Cavendish will ride in the grupetto.

1 Mark Cavendish (GBr) Omega Pharma-Quick Step 109 pts
2 Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team 83
3 Mauro Santambrogio (Ita) Vini Fantini-Selle Italia 77
4 Elia Viviani (Ita) Cannondale Pro Cycling 72
5 Rigoberto Uran Uran (Col) Sky Procycling 65

The peloton has already covered 20km but there hasn't been a break yet.

Weather update: At the stage start (Cesana Torinese, km 0), 8 degrees Celsius, sunshine, some cloud. On Col du Mont Cenis (km 58), 1 degree Celsius, perhaps snow. At Valloire (km 131), 8 degrees Celsius, perhaps rain. Les Verneys (km 134), 2 degrees Celsius, perhaps snow.

At the start this morning Pat McQuaid made an appearance. Ivan Basso's sister was also in attendance. One of those two individuals was banned from racing, I thought.

Cadel Evans needs little inspiration today. On the Galibier in 2011, while Andy Schleck was up the road winning the stage, Evans chased and effectively took a huge step towards winning that years' Tour de France. He'll need an equally impressive performance today.

Vincenzo Nibali is still in the driving seat, having extended his lead over Cadel Evans and Rigoberto Uran. Scarponi, Gesink, they lost time too but Santambrogio is now just one second off a podium place.

It's certainly not over though. Will Nibali have a bad day? Have we already seen the best of Cadel Evans? Can Santambrogio or Uran cause an upset?

Mauro Santambrogio (Vini Fantini-Selle Italia) took the honours yesterday with a win ahead of maglia rosa Vincenzo Nibali. The former BMC rider has been flying all season and this major win has been coming. He was climbing with the best all the way back at the Tour de San Luis, and has been in fine form throughout the first half of the season. If he carries on at this rate, he'll be a good bet for the podium come Brescia.

With how it's all unfolded, it's actually quite a touching tribute for the stage to finish at Pantani's monument.

That day on the Galibier  in 1998 was one of the greatest moments in cycling and perhaps the scene of Pantani's greatest triumph. It was an era full of troubles but there's no denying Pantani was a class act in the mountains.

 Sunny skies at the start this morning at Cesana. The riders are just about to set off as well.