Welcome to LIVE coverage of stage 18 of the Giro d'Italia - a 20.6km uphill time trial from Mori to Polsa.

Garmin's Tom Danielson catches two riders in quick succession ahead of the 15km-to-go banner: Lampre's Simone Stortoni and Movistar's Fran Ventoso.

Miguel Angel Rubiano rolls down the ramp. The Androni-Giocattoli rider was part of yesterday's break and so may be rather tired today.

Cataldo has already caught GreenEdge's Jens Keukeleire, who started two riders in front of him. It looks like he's going well.

Sky's Dario Cataldo is on course. He's a rider who could do well today. Ill during the first week in which he had to ride in support of Wiggins, the Italian will be able to ride his own race today and could surprise.

Manuele Boaro tired over the second half the course. The Italian is currently third, 50 secs off the pace set by Cummings.

Swedish youngster Tobias Ludvigsson (Argos Shimano), who has had an active Giro with numerous breaks, has set the second best time at the finish, 43 seconds down on Steve Cummings, the current leader. Jerome Pineau of OPQS is third, at 1:15.

Cadel Evans will almost certainly be in the red jersey tonight because there are points up for grabs. He trails Cavendish by four points in the standings and there are 5pts available for 12th place today - so as long as Evans finishes 12th or above, he'll take on the Stelvio tomorrow in red. Unless, of course, Nibali cracks big time today and Evans takes the maglia rosa...

The 2011 Vuelta winner Juan Jose Cobo has set the seventh best time at the finish, one second under two minutes off Cummings.

Manuele Boaro is one of the few riders to be using a time trial handle bar set up and aerodynamic helmet today. We haven't seen many so far. The Italian is currently on the second climb and it will be interesting to see if he makes any in-roads into Cummings' target time. Boaro was second at the split, remember.

Mark Cavendish, the red jersey, is currently in 44th position at the finish 5:26 down on compatriot Cummings. Cav picked up some points at the intermediate sprints yesterday but Cadel Evans's 10th place on the stage meant the Australian moved to within four points of the Omega Pharma-Quick Step sprinter in the points standings. It's going to be touch for Cav to win the red jersey that he lost by just one point last year...

Filippo Pozzato's all smiles as he crosses the line. The Lampre rider is a popular figure in the area but his time was not a good one. Pozzato has been disappointing in this year's Giro - hardly featuring in any of the sprints or breaks.

Interesting to note that few of the riders are using special time trial bikes - the course is so steep and with only one short downhill and flat drag, there is really no use in riding with the special time machines that we saw in the opening, flatter ITT.

Manuele Boaro (Saxo-Tinkoff) has set the second best time at the first check, 16 seconds down on Cummings.

At the moment the riders are leaving at one-minute intervals but the staggered starts will be increased to three minutes for the top 15 riders. The top five will roll down the ramp as follows: Niemiec 15:21, Scarponi 15:24, Uran 15:27, Evans 15:30, Nibali 15:33.

Briton Steve Cummings won a stage in the Vuelta a Espana last year and rides for the BMC team of Australian veteran Cadel Evans, who will hope to pile the pressure on Vincenzo Nibali today. The big news overnight is that Evans has been given the nod ahead of American Tejay van Garderen as BMC's number one rider at the Tour de France next month, according to team president Jim Ochowicz. The 2011 champion is riding back into his best form and is on course for a podium in Brescia.

Dutchman Thomas Dekker (Garmin-Sharp) has just set the second best time at the finish, 1:29 down on Cummings' benchmark.

Britain's Alex Dowsett won the race's first time trial by 10 seconds over compatriot Bradley Wiggins, who has since left the race with illness. Over a considerably steeper parcours, Movistar's Dowsett could not repeat his winning ride today: he is currently in eight place at the finish, 2:48 down on the current leader Steve Cummings.

The maglia rosa Vincenzo Nibali will be the last to roll down the ramp at Mori. The Italian from Astana will start his time trial at 15:33 UK time - so in just under two hours' time.

The starting ramp for today's TT is in the Velodrome at Mori, which is a nice touch. The riders first complete a lap of the circuit before the first climb to Brentonico for a rise of 187m to 695m. The final climb is longer and steeper, with the finish at Polsa at 1205m.

Cummings holds the best time at the first split at Brentonico too. His time of 22:14 is the current target after the first ascent at 9.5km, with Italian Gianluca Brambilla (OPQS) 19 seconds down in second place.

We pick up our live coverage of the time trial with Britain's Steve Cummings in the provisional lead. The BMC rider set a time of 47:08 for the 20.6km course and leads Spaniard Miguel Minguel of Euskaltel by 1:47.