Giro d'Italia stage 14 LIVE: A key GC day crowned by a tough summit finish

It's back up again now in the break as Leknessund takes over.

The pace has been knocked off in the peloton, no one team wants to control it.

Visma look content enough. They have all 7 of their riders together at the front of the peloton, and keeping the break at just 10 seconds.

The break is being stretched out as the EF riders in it up the pace.

At the other end of the break, the Grupetto is forming, full of all the suspected sprinters, plus, Scaroni, now a long way down from the GC top ten.

Mas, Poels, Arrieta, Cepeda are also all the break.

Some of the most eye-catching names in this group - Ciccone, Vlasov and Narváez.

The chasers have joined the three out front, to form one huge new lead group.

Visma continue to ride tempo at the front of the peloton a these moves go clear.

That chase group has swollen to about 20 riders.

Now more attacks come out the peloton as they start the climb. A group of about 12 are chasing the 3 leaders.

Those two join Bais as they reach the official start of the climb. They will spend the next 16km climbing at an average gradient of 6%.

Marcellusi is the Bardiani rider, and Hamilton the Picnic rider.

A Picnic and Bardiani rider are trying to join Bais.

As the road goes uphill already towards the official start of the climb, Bais attacks.

A Bardiani rider tried attacking at the flag, but was brought back as Visma-Lease a Bike take control of the peloton and set the tempo.

There will only be two kilometres until the start of the day's first climb, the category one Saint-Barthélémy.

OFFICIAL START

And they're off!

One factor that will come into play today is the heat. Like yesterday, it’s a bit of a scorcher out there, but this time any GC rider who struggles to find their best legs in the hot temperatures is in danger of losing time.

Afonso Eulálio at the start wearing pink - for one last time?

The riders are on the move in the neutralised start - one of the few parts of today's parcours that is flat.

Vingegaard has been candid about his intentions of taking the pink jersey today, but they can be sure that Afonso Eulálio will fight to the very end to keep it. The young Portuguese rider has defied expectations to keep it for this long, but 33 seconds feels like a very slender margin on a stage as tough as this up against the climber as good as Vingegaard.

That means that this could be the day that Jonas Vingegaard at last seizes control of the Maglia Rosa. Indeed, he sounded very confident in yesterday’s post-stage interview.

'It's the right time to take the pink jersey' – Jonas Vingegaard and Visma-Lease a Bike finally ready to take control of the Giro d'Italia

All this climbing means that at the GC which, which has been on a hold this week aside from the one time trial, will reignite, with all the riders up there in and around the top ten jostling for position.

For the first time since the very end of the second week, when Jonas Vingegaard climbed to victory at Corno alle Scale, the Giro is in the mountains. The riders must take on no less than five climbs, two of them ranked category one, including a huge 16km slog up to the finish at Pila.

Current reports on the ground are that the weather is dry and very warm for today's major stage.

Hello and welcome to the live coverage of stage 14 of the Giro d'Italia. It's set to be a seriously important day for the GC riders in some dauntingly tough climbs in the Italian Alps.