As it happened: A sprinter's photo finish on Giro d'Italia stage 17

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

Just over an hour to go until the start in Pergine Valsugana.

The map and profile of today's stage. It doesn't look very exciting, does it...

Riders are signing on ahead of the stage start.

A reminder of the GC standings and stage 16 results here.

Stunning mountains and a broken stalemate – Giro d'Italia stage 16 gallery

Monte Bondone adds fuel to GC fire as Thomas reclaims maglia rosa and rank of challengers is thinned

A look back at yesterday's stage...

Giro d'Italia: Almeida outduels Thomas on stage 16 atop Monte Bondone

No non-starters today announced yet. 128 riders left in the Giro.

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Just two men left for Soudal-QuickStep at the Giro... Pieter Serry and Ilan Van Wilder.

Just over 10 minutes to the start of the stage...

A short 2.6km neutral zone to start things off today.

No climbs today. Two sprints. A full 300 metres of altitude gain.

Not many sprinters left in the race from what wasn't a super strong sprint field to start with...

Jonathan Milan, Pascal Ackermann, Fernando Gaviria, Michael Matthews, Mark Cavendish, Marius Mayrhofer, Stefano Oldani, Vincenzo Albanese, Arne Marit, Simone Consonni.

Milan the big favourite today.

The riders roll out to start the neutral zone a few minutes late.

Cavendish stops to fix a problem with his saddle.

197km to go

Through kilometre 0 and racing is underway.

Attacks from the start.

Four riders away already.

Thomas Champion (Cofidis), Charlie Quarterman (Corratec-Selle Italia), Diego Sevilla (Eolo-Kometa), Senne Leysen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) are away.

Henok Mulubrhan (Green Project-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè) trying to leave the peloton too.

Now the TV producer is showing us a lake during probably the only exciting part of the race for the next four hours. Great choice.

Bardiani still attacking the peloton.

193km to go

A mostly downhill start to the day aside from a few lumps at Roncegno and Villa Agnedo.

Lukas Pöstlberger (Jayco-AlUla) pushing on at the front.

37 seconds to the breakaway quartet.

189km to go

Another Bardiani attack.

185km to go

Davide Gabburo (Green Project-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè) alone in the chase.

More attacks flowing now. Matthews and Milan are off the front!

They don't get away, though.

Over two minutes to the leading four now.

180km to go

Astana, Bahrain, Movistar at the front of the peloton.

A decent start. That has chewed up about half an hour of time. Now to watch the breakaway roll along for four hours.

2:40 to the break.

175km to go

Gabburo caught by the peloton.

Champion, Quarterman, Sevilla, Leysen in the break.

170km to go

DSM, Astana, Bahrain, Movistar heading up the peloton.

The break of the day.

The peloton is holding the break's lead under three minutes.

159km to go

2:30 for the break.

The gap is coming down as the sprint squads control the race.

152km to go

1:45 for the breakaway now.

Sprint teams control the peloton.

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142km to go

1:40 is the time gap.

Even the riders are bored...

Israel-Premier Tech rider Marco Frigo, who has been a revelation of the Giro, stops at the side of the road to greet his fan club as the peloton passes his hometown of Bassano del Grappa.

His fans painted MARCO FRIGO FANS CLUB along the road in large letters and there were plenty of photos and cheers for the 23-year-old.

130km to go

1:50 for the break.

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Just a few kilometres until the riders hit the intermediate sprint at Rosà.

A battle among the break for the sprint and it's very close between Champion and Sevilla.

Champion is near the top of the intermediate sprint classification. He'll be closer to leader Toms Skujins after that.

And now the sprinters jump out of the peloton.

113km to go

Milan easily the quickest from the peloton. Derek Gee, who is actually second in the points classification now – albeit a very distant second – is next.

Eight points for Champion at the sprint takes him from 25 to 33 points. He's three points down on Skujins now.

Meanwhile, Milan's four points and Gee's three mean they lie on 180 and 121 at the top of the classification.

Champion also leads the Fuga breakaway competition. He logged 487 out in the break before today's stage, so that number is only going up.

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107km to go

1:27 for the break.

A shot of Marco Frigo stopping to greet his fan club earlier on today.

93km to go

Two minutes for the peloton at the moment.

A nice scene featuring the peloton earlier in the stage.

Cavendish getting something wrong with his shoe fixed. Thrilling stuff.

81km to go

2:25 for the breakaway.

It's still the sprint teams of Movistar, DSM, Astana at the front. Bahrain not there at the moment.

The breakaway currently at 2:25 up on the peloton.

65km to go

Not much change in the situation.

Another shot of the breakaway because why not...

56km to go

An upping of the pace in the peloton and the gap is coming down again. 1:50 now.

Just over 20km to go until the second and final intermediate sprint of the stage.

The riders are racing past Venice towards the coast now.

The final 35km or so are run along the coast road towards Caorle.

Geraint Thomas back in the maglia rosa today.

45km to go

1:40 from the break to peloton.

None of the men in the break have won a race as a pro. Will that change today?

Astana, Bahrain, Movistar, DSM still working at the head of the peloton.

39km to go

1:10 now.

The cars have now been pulled from the gap between break and peloton. They won't last too much longer out front.

35km to go

50 seconds.

One last hurrah for the breakaway at the intermediate sprint.

It's fully contested and Quarterman takes it ahead of Champion.

30km to go

47 seconds between break and peloton.

Through the seaside town of Jesolo now.

Not much longer before the stage is over. Four hours of nothing.

All flat on the run to the line.

26km to go

Sevilla, Quarterman, Champion, and Leysen continue on at 23 seconds up.

14 seconds and counting. It's almost over.

22km to go

Leysen goes on the attack.

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Champion now back in the peloton.

Leysen out front while Quarterman and Sevilla continue behind him.

Leysen has pulled out some more time here, getting half a minute on the peloton.

19km to go

Quarterman and Sevilla almost caught now.

A minute now for Leysen!

15km to go

Movistar on the front of the peloton at 53 seconds.

Leysen's lead is coming down. 35 seconds now.

Bahrain also moving up in the peloton to help bring him back.

12km to go

Jayco-AlUla also up there.

A look at the technical run to the line today.

10km to go

20 seconds for Leysen.

He's holding the gap for now.

8km to go

Still 20 seconds for Leysen.

Leysen on the attack.

The Movistar train behind.

6km to go

Leysen just a few seconds up on the peloton now.

Almost over for him now.

5km to go

Leysen is caught. 

Ineos Grenadiers at the front.

Four right-angle corners and a roundabout inside the final 4km. Hopefully everyone makes it the finish OK.

4km to go

The long way around the roundabout now as Ineos continue to lead.

And now a long run up the coastal road for around 1800 metres.

3km to go

Very fast on the front. All GC men on the straight through the 3km mark just fine.

Trek, Alpecin, DSM all up front.

Next up two left-handers in quick succession at the end of the straight.

Intermarché and Jayco join DSM up front.

2km to go

First of the left-handers over and done with.

DSM lead through the second left turn.

Now a tight right-hander. Jayco on the front ahead of DSM.

1km to go

Racing into the final kilometre and a couple of hundred metres until the final, sharp left-hander onto the finishing straight.

Lined out at the front.

DSM back on with two men.

Intermarché, Jayco next in line. Cofidis, Alpecin also there.

Jayco lead into the final 500 metres.

Matthews launches long!

Milan coming from far back!

Dainese coming up alongside the pair.

Dainese might just have taken that!

It was between Dainese and Milan with Matthews a touch behind.

Finish

Alberto Dainese (Team DSM) has won stage 17 of the Giro d'Italia!

Millimetres in it, maybe a tyre.

So close!

Milan was barely in the picture – around sixth from the front – when Matthews hit the front at around 200 metres to go.

Dainese was on Consonni's wheel behind Matthews. He had to bridge a gap as the Cofidis rider faded.

Milan, meanwhile, had to get across to Dainese and then launch into the wind. That positioning made all the difference in the final metres.

A good sprint at the end of a horrifically boring day.

Giro d'Italia: Alberto Dainese wins stage 17 bunch sprint in Caorle

Thomas safely in as Italian out-powers Milan, Matthews

The big three on the stage as they crossed the line.

Here's what Michael Matthews said after taking third place today...

"It was exciting. I do like a bit of a technical final like this where it lines out the peloton and there's a bit less fighting. Definitely happy with the way the team rode today. Eddie stayed safe and we got a podium with me.

"I'm just happy to get into some open wind in the final there and do my sprint. When you're against pure sprinters it's always going to be difficult for me, but we put ourselves in the best position and we gave it a shot."

It's the third Italian stage win of the Giro d'Italia – sprint wins for Jonathan Milan and Alberto Dainese plus Davide Bais' breakaway win at Gran Sasso d'Italia.

Intermarché-Circus-Wanty sprinter Arne Marit gives and emotional interview after the finish. He said he suffered through the mountains to target this stage and felt strong in the final only for his chain to drop in the dash to the line.

"I have no words for this. I launched my sprint on 55-11 and the moment I launched, my chain goes off on the outside."

Here's what stage winner Alberto Dainese said after the finish...

"This is insane. The first sprint didn't go as planned. We did a good job but we never really had a good result to show how good we did the final. Today we did an insane final. Marius [Mayrhofer] did a super job, and Niklas [Märkl] also to finish it off. When it started I was a bit overtaken by the guys on the left, so I had to squeeze and try to catch Matthews.

"In the last metres, I was really digging so deep. I was really on the limit and I saw Johnny coming. I couldn't throw my bike because I was really on the limit but it's nice to get a few centimetres in front and get the win.

In the last five days, I was quite sick with stomach issues and also my breathing was not good. Today was the first day I was feeling OK, like 80%, and to win after such a struggle in the last five days is insane. I'm super happy and I cannot thank the team enough to keep me in the race and keep me motivated for this."

Dainese takes the plaudits on the podium.

215 points for Milan now in the race for the maglia ciclamino. Derek Gee is second on 121 points.

Geraint Thomas holds an 18-second lead on João Almeida heading into tomorrow's mountain stage to Val di Zoldo.

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No climbs today so Ben Healy keeps his blue jersey. At 164 points he's 20 up on Davide Bais. Einer Rubio and Thibaut Pinot are next at 47 and 50 points down.

119 points up for grabs tomorrow – Giro d'Italia classifications, jerseys and rules explained

Meanwhile, João Almeida remains in the white of best young rider. He's 3:12 up on Andreas Leknessund.

A look back at the final kilometre of today's stage...

A look at tomorrow's stage to Val di Zoldo. 161km, two first-category climbs, two second-category climbs, and a tough closing 20km.

That's all from us on live coverage today. Coming up we'll have news, reaction and a look ahead to the coming days as the Giro heads back into the mountains. Back tomorrow for more!