Welcome to live coverage of stage 17 of the Giro d'Italia, an undulating 230km trek from Feltre to Tirano.

Aternatively, you can listen to LIVE commentary from David Harmon and Sean Kelly on your PC or MAC:

The race is LIVE NOW on British Eurosport (Sky 410 / Virgin Media 521) and is also available on your PC via the Eurosport Player:

The leaders are approaching the nursery slopes of the Cat.2 Passo del Tonale with 100km left to ride today. The gap is 7:35.

The gap is up to 7:30 as the peloton appears to take it very easy during their lunch break. Having a man up ahead in the break means the Saxo Bank team of pink jersey Alberto Contador are not too concerned with how things pan out - although they will have an eye on Siutsou, the highest placed rider in the break (+12:05).

Talking of collisions with car doors, the reason behind Francesco Masciarelli's withdrawal this morning came down to the injuries the Astana rider sustained last Friday following the summit finish at the Grossglockner. On his way to the team bus, the Italian was struck by a car door that opened, unexpectedly, in front of him.

An interesting story from yesterday's mountain time trial was the expulsion from the race of one of Saxo Bank's mechanics after he intentionally hit a spectator by opening a car door onto him when passing. Contador's personal mechanic Faustino Munoz claimed he did it after he saw the tifoso trying to punch the Spaniard. It will be interesting to see if Contador goes about any of his inter-stage bike changes anymore now he's down on his trusted wheels man.

It's lunch time for the leading 16-man group. Careful with those musettes...

The gap is up to 5:50 with the feeding zone approaching.

Last year the Giro had a stage which finished atop the Passo del Tonale - won by Swiss Johann Tschopp. The Aprica is also used a fair amount by the race, although often in the build up to climbing on to the feared Passo di Gavia (last year Michele Scarponi won this stage). Three years ago, when the Giro last visited Tirano, Emanuele Sella soloed to victory - although this, along with two other mountain stage victories, were taken away from him after the Italian tested positive for CERA.

We've seen a lot of the likes of Kiserlovski, Bakelants, Vorganov and Visconti in previous breaks in this Giro - although no one in this group has yet won a stage in the race. Both Le Mevel and Suitsou had storming opening week's of the Giro, and were in podium positions until the big mountains came along last Friday. Hubert Dupont was pretty active during the mountains, often in support of his AG2R team-mate and compatriot John Gadret.

The best placed rider in the break is HTC's Kanstantin Siutsou, currently 12th place, 12:05 behind maglia rosa Alberto Contador.

The lead is up to five minutes for the break.

The 16 leaders have gone over the small Vigolo Vattaro climb and are now free-wheeling down to the valley where, after a long slog, lunch will await before the Passo del Tonale cat.2 climb.

Hubert Dupont (Ag2R) has now joined the leaders, who have a four minute lead over the peloton.

Break in full: Christian Le Mevel (Garmin-Cervelo), Giovanni Visconti (Farnese Vini), Jan Bakelants (Omega Pharma-Lotto), Robert Kiserlovski (Astana), Kanstanstin Suitsou (HTC), Jesus Hernandez (Saxo Bank), Pablo Lastras (Movistar), Diego Ulissi (Lampre), Eduard Vorganov (Katusha), Alberto Losada (Katusha), Ben Gastauer (AG2R), Mathias Frank (BMC), Fabio Taborre (Acqua & Sapone), Addy Engels (Quick Step), Leonardo Giordani (Farnese Vini).

One lone rider, Hubert Dupont (AG2R) is riding in pursuit at 55 seconds, while the peloton are 2:05 back. Full names of escapees coming up.

BREAK: A group of around 15 riders have jumped clear of the peloton. They include Christian Le Mevel (Garmin-Cervelo), Giovanni Visconti (Farnese Vini), Jan Bakelants (Omega Pharma-Lotto), Robert Kiserlovski (Astana) and Kanstanstin Suitsou (HTC).

Brazilian sprinting domestique Murilo Fischer (Garmin-Cervelo) has abandoned the race. Hats off for making it so far, Murilo.

It's clearly stalemate out there, the riders still exhausted after yesterday's uphill time trial and the previous three brutal days in the mountains - despite that rest day on Monday.

The average speed after one hour of racing is a pretty high 47.9 km/h.

Still no movement from the peloton, which is riding together in this early flat section of the stage. Who do you think will win today? Make your suggestions - and give good reasons - in the comment section below...