Giro d'Italia stage 3 LIVE: Jonathan Milan, Paul Magnier and Tobias Lund Andresen braced for a bunch sprint rematch

The Unibet Rose Rockets rider is now contributing to the pace-setting.

Thomas Silva, enjoying what has so far been a very comfortable day in the pink jersey.

150KM TO GO

Soudal are being more stingy than teams from previous stages, bringing the gap down to about 2:30 and keeping it pegged there.

Soudal's Bastiaens is doing all the work for now, but there's a Unibet Rose Rockets rider behind hum. That suggests they believe Dylan Groenewegen can survive the climb to compete for the sprint today.

Soudal-QuickStep have stepped up, putting Ayco Bastiaens at the front. They're showing confidence that their man Paul Magnier can repeat his stage 1 sprint success.

160KM TO GO

And now it's up to 3:45, as nobody in the peloton has taken responsibility to control it.

The gap's up to over three minutes.

XDS Astana have placed two riders at the front of the peloton, but they're not exactly setting a pace yet, allowing the gap to continue to grow.

170KM TO GO

The leading trio already have a lead of 1:45, and that looks set to continue to grow.

It’s very relaxed in the peloton, where riders are chatting with, rather than attacking, one another.

No more attacks were forthcoming, and it seems we have our break of the day already.

So far so familiar - Diego Pablo Sevilla and his Polti VisitMalta teammate Alessandro Tonelli have attacked with Bardiani's Manuele Tarozzi attacked right from the gun, and have been allowed up the road.

OFFICIAL START

And we're off!

We're about to find out as the flag is about to be waved.

So far at this Giro there have been no fights to get into the day’s break - will that be different today, now that the GC rankings have begun to take some shape, with many riders now well down on time already?

Race leader Guillermo Thomas Silva at the start.

Plovdiv is hosting today's stage, and the riders are moving through its throngs of crowds now for the unofficial start.

Adam Yates, battered and bruised at the end of yesterday's stage. Remarkably, this is the first of the 17 Grand Tours he has competed in that he has failed to finish.

Yates’ UAE team were easily the most ill-affected from that crash. Yates joins fellow climbers Jay Vine and Marc Soler in retiring, while their hopefuls for the stage yesterday, Antonio Morgado and Jhonatan Narváez, also went down. Today will be about recovering and regrouping, before they reassess how to approach this race with their depleted roster.

'The most important thing is that the guys manage to recover' – UAE Team Emirates-XRG rue tough day at Giro d'Italia as five riders crash

The biggest news overnight is that Adam Yates has pulled out of the race. The Brit went down hard yesterday, and fell out of GC contention, and it’s been decided he won’t race on having shown some delayed concussive symptoms.

That’s a stark reversal in fortunes from twelve months ago for the Yates family, who this time last year were celebrating Simon’s surprise overall victory at the Giro.

Adam Yates out of Giro d'Italia following brutal crash, won't start stage 3

For the GC men, the day will be solely about survival, and yesterday’s nasty crash was a harrowing reminder of how things can go south so suddenly at Grand Tour racing. Five riders didn’t make it to the finish, and there have been more withdrawals overnight.

We’re in Bulgaria again, for a third and final stage before a rest day and border crossing brings the race back to the motherland. And the parcours is kind of like the middle ground between day one’s flat roads, and yesterday’s hills - there’s a long category two climb halfway through to challenge the sprinters, but after that a straightforward run-in to the line.

Hello and welcome to stage three of the Giro d'Italia!