Giro d'Italia stage 17 - Live coverage

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of stage 17 of the Giro d'Italia.

We're half an hour away from the start of today's stage, another day in the mountains as the riders head east.

A look at the map of today's stage. The riders will head south and east following yesterday's finish in Aprica.

A reminder of what happened on stage 16 as Jan Hirt won from the breakaway

Meanwhile, João Almeida won our rider of the day title yesterday for his dogged ride to limit his losses in the mountains once again.

Here's a reminder of yesterday's results and the GC standings heading into today.

Joe Dombrowski's Giro diary - Nibali has proved this year’s race is only just getting going

'There's a sense that anything could happen between now and Verona on Sunday'

We're around 10 minutes from the start of the stage now. Then the riders will go through a 4.4km neutral zone before the flag drops.

Jai Hindley moving to three seconds down on Richard Carapaz was the biggest GC move of yesterday's stage. Read the full story here.

Hindley edges closer to Giro d'Italia maglia rosa

The riders are rolling out in bad weather today. It's raining at the moment and the rain jackets are on from the start.

It's climbing from the start today so at least the riders will be able to warm up a little as they start the stage during the inevitable battle for the breakaway.

The peloton has started the roll-out now, a few minutes behind schedule.

Mark Cavendish didn't look too thrilled at the start today. It's not a stage for him and the rain is only going to make it harder.

These men were active yesterday – Carapaz in the GC battle and Koen Bouwman collecting mountain points in the breakaway.

Meanwhile, they and the rest of the peloton are still rolling through the netural zone.

Our preview of this mountainous final week, with the expected rain hitting the race today.

Preview: Thunderstorms add extra twist to mountainous third week

168km to go

The flag is dropped and the racing is underway on stage 17!

Matt Holmes among the first attackers, as has often been the case in this Giro.

8.7km of climbing up the Passo del Tonale to start the day as the riders hit 1,883 metres of altitude early on.

The gruppetto forms early as the sprinters and non-climbers drop out the back of the peloton.

166km to go

Riders from Bahrain, Astana, Eolo up front as the battle for the break continues.

Eolo's Erik Fetter leading the way at the moment.

Hugh Carthy and Thymen Arensman are up front the battle for the break once again now.

More riders drop out the back as the climb continues. It's misty up here as well as wet.

163km to go

Carthy pushing on at the front now. There's separation between a few groups at the front but no move fully away yet.

Arensman (DSM), Felix Gall (AG2R), Alessandro Covi (UAE) are up there with him.

Of course, more riders are trying to get out front, too...

KOM leader Koen Bouwman (Jumbo) and Giulio Ciccone (Trek) are also on the move.

160km to go

The four men up front – Carthy, Arensman, Covi, Gall – have a minute on the peloton now.

More chasers lie in between them.

And yet more men try to jump away from the peloton, too.

Names like Van der Poel, Bouwman, Ciccone, Hirt, Valter, Taaramäe, Fortunato, Camargo are in the chase group in between the leaders and the peloton.

No KOM points on offer as the leaders head across the top of the Passo del Tonale.

158km to go

30 seconds to the chase group, 1:30 to the peloton.

Here are the mostly familiar names that make up the chase group...

Prodhomme, Van der Poel, Buitrago, Zana, Covili, Martin, Ravanelli, Camargo, Fortunato, Valter, Hirt, Taaramäe, Bouwman, Leemreize, Oomen, Pedrero, Vansevenant, Howson, Ciccone

Arensman, Carthy, Gall, Covi continue at 25 seconds up on the chase as they head down the descent.

The total descent is almost 65km long here. It's steeper for the first 15km and then it's far more gradual as they head down to the valley floor near Trento.

The front group aren't pushing too hard at the moment and the chase group are closing in to make it a large breakaway out front.

150km to go

And now the two groups have merged.

Here's the breakaway...

Nicolas Prodhomme, Felix Gall (AG2R Citroën), Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix), Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious), Filippo Zana, Luca Covili (Bardiani-CSF-Faizanè), Damien Howson (BikeExchange-Jayco), Guillaume Martin (Cofidis), Simone Ravanelli (Drone Hopper-Androni Giocattoli), Diego Camargo, Hugh Carthy (EF Education-EasyPost), Lorenzo Fortunato (Eolo-Kometa), Attila Valter (Groupama-FDJ), Jan Hirt, Rein Taaramäe (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert), Koen Bouwman, Gijs Leemreize, Sam Oomen (Jumbo-Visma), Antonio Pedrero (Movistar), Mauri Vansevenant (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl), Thymen Arensman (Team DSM), Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo), Alessandro Covi (UAE Team Emirates)

145km to go

2:12 back to the peloton.

The gap is only creeping up as the dowhill kilometres pass by. 

Ineos Grenadiers and Bora-Hansgrohe are at the head of the peloton currently.

138km to go

David de la Cruz (Astana Qazaqstan) is battling his way across to the break. He's 15 seconds down while the peloton is at 2:35.

De la Cruz now makes it across to add another rider to the large group up front. Diego Rosa also gets in after chasing across.

There's a long way to go until the riders hit the first classified climb of the day.

The third-category ascent to Giovo starts in almost 40km.

Three minutes between breakaway and peloton currently.

A look at the breakaway riders attacking on the Tonale earlier on.

Some news from elsewhere as Giro stage winner Biniam Girmay won't race the Tour de France but luckily has no permanent eye damage after his podium cork mishap.

122km to go

3:05 back to the peloton.

The riders have long finished the initial descent off the climb, now it's the more gradual descent to the valley.

Ben Swift leading the peloton ahead of his Ineos Grenadiers teammates.

Many of the riders out in the break are way down on the GC, with Simone Ravanelli the worst off at 3:18:44 down on Carapaz.

After Jan Hirt's stage win yesterday, though, he lies best off at ninth, 7:42 off the maglia rosa.

112km to go

Still three minutes for the breakaway as they continue on the downhill run.

A look at the breakaway, with Bouwman and Ciccone up front.

Meanwhile, Ineos Grenadiers are controlling the break's advantage at a few seconds either side of three minutes.

105km to go

The situation remains the same now, as the riders continue the gentle slope downhill into the valley.

All the men in the breakaway are still together here. We're just over 10km away from the climb of Giovo, the first categorised hill of the stage.

98km to go

Inside the final 100km of the stage now. It has been very quiet since the break went but the main action will come later on as the riders tackle two first-category climbs.

 Ben Swift continues his work leading the peloton.

3:25 for the breakaway now as Ineos let the gap go out a bit more.

92km to go

It's still wet down in the valley but the conditions are not quite as dismal as they were at the start. It's a bit brighter at the moment.

Just under 4km to go until the break hits the first climb of the day.

18 teams out in the break at the moment.

Ineos Grenadiers and Bora-Hansgrohe will be focussed on the battle for pink later on, while Lotto Soudal and Israel-Premier Tech are largely in survival mode at this point, with the latter squad having had little impact on the race so far.

87km to go

After a long period of holding the gap to the break at three minutes, the gap has now gone up quite a bit to 4:45.

Hirt, then, is in virtual fifth overall, leapfrogging Nibali, Pozzovivo, Bilbao, Buchmann. Are Ineos hoping some other teams will come up and help them set the pace?

Meanwhile, the break has started the third-category climb of Giovo.

Ineos continue at the head of the peloton.

No splits in the break on this climb yet.

83km to go

The break continue to work their way up the hill. A kilometre to the top. Will there be a battle for the KOM points?

4:50 up on the peloton now.

9-4-2-1 points up for grabs on top of the hill.

Bouwman accelerates in the final metres of the climb! Ciccone chases but can't stay with the Dutchman.

Nine points for Bouwman, four for Ciccone.

Leemreize has joined Bouwman up front after the top of the hill.

80km to go

Buitrago slides out on a corner on the way down. He's holding his arm and is in pain.

Out front it's Leemreize leading Bouwman, Ciccone, and it looks like Carthy just behind.

Buitrago gets a new bike and he's off again.

Vansevenant and Van der Poel are in the lead split in the break.

Now Leemreize pushes off at the front.

Leemreize, Ooman, Bouwman, Covi, Fortunato, Vansevenant, Pedrero, Carthy, Ciccone, Martin are out in that front split.

23 seconds to the rest of the break.

5:20 back to the peloton now.

The gap between the halves of the break is down to 15 seconds now.

6:10 back to the peloton...

73km to go

The riders are taking on the rolling roads following the climb.

Ben Swift back on the front of the peloton after Salvatore Puccio does a stint. 

Eight seconds between the two breakaway groups now. It'll come back together again soon.

68km to go

Diego Rosa and Rein Taaramäe miss out as the two parts of the breakaway merge together again.

6:40 for the breakaway now. Hirt is closing in on Landa's fourth place on the virtual standings.

65km to go

Mathieu van der Poel attacks!

He gets a huge gap almost immediately.

He and the rest of the break are around 18km from the intermediate sprint at Pergine Valsugana. The climb of the Passo del Vetriolo begins shortly afterwards.

Martin, Covi and one of the AG2R men are chasing.

Martin, Covi, Gall make it across to Van der Poel.

The four men are 20 seconds up on the rest of the break.

63km to go

6:25 back to the peloton, still led by Swift.

TV shots show some riders dropping away from the rear of the peloton. Simon Yates is among them.

Taaramäe drops back to the peloton.

57km to go

30 seconds between the leading quartet and the rest of the break.

A nice shot of the riders taking on an uphill section mid-stage

Now the gap between the break groups is up to 40 seconds.

Now Bouwman is pushing the pace at the head of the chasing group.

51km to go

Still 40 seconds between the groups.

Oomen also trying to close the gap.

The sun is out now and the roads look dry, a big contrast from the start of the day.

Despite the work of Jumbo-Visma in the chase, they aren't making any time up on the leaders.

47km to go

The lead quartet approach the intermediate sprint ahead of the climb.

11.8km at 7.7% waiting for the riders on the Passo del Vetriolo.

A minute for the lead quartet now.

The leaders pass through the sprint and begin the climb. Martin leads Gall, Covi, and Van der Poel over the sprint.

The chasers seem to have given up – it's up to 1:20 now.

Diego Rosa and Diego Camargo are back in the peloton now after being dropped from the break.

Seven minutes back to the peloton.

Carthy and Buitrago push on in the chase group. Ciccone and Bouwman follow.

That acceleration has brought the gap under a minute on the climb.

Buitrago, Carthy, Ciccone, Bouwman continue to eat into the gap. 

A few more riders try to get across to them. Hirt and Vansevenant.

41km to go

Ciccone no longer in that chase group, though.

It's Bouwman, Buitrago, Hirt, Carthy, Vansevenant 40 seconds down on the leaders.

Good climbers like Ciccone, Pedrero, De la Cruz, Fortunato, Arensman, Zana all missing that move.

Just 30 seconds for Martin, Van der Poel, Covi, Gall now.

The riders are around the midway point of the climb now.

Van der Poel at the head of that attack which now leads the race.

Carthy leads the chase.

6:20 back to the peloton still. Ineos Grenadiers have no interest in catching the break and battling over – and possibly losing – bonus seconds at the line. It appears nobody else has been willing to take it up, either.

Van der Poel is controlling the pace at the head of the four leaders on these slopes of 8-10%. Impressive given the climbers with him.

Carthy continues to pull the chase group. Still 30 seconds back.

And now Carthy ups the pace.

Gijs Leemreize has also made it up to that second group.

Carthy, Hirt, Buitrago, Leemreize, Bouwman, Vansevenant chasing.

Swift continues at the head of the peloton, 2km further down the mountain.

38km to go

Leemreize, Buitrago, and Vansevenant are struggling in the chase.

4km to the top of the climb.

Covi drops from the lead quartet. Van der Poel still in there