Welcome to live coverage of stage nine of the Giro d'Italia - a mountainous 173km ride through the Apennines from Sansepolcro to Florence.

CRASH: One of the Astana riders comes to grief on the descent on a tight bend. He slides for an eternity over the road before coming to rest against a low wall covered in a pink flag. Ouch.

Belkov has 6:25 on the Astana-led peloton. The Russian is about 35 seconds ahead of Pirazzi and Chalapud, who were caught and passed on the descent.

The descent is wet and foggy. Belkov is still riding out alone and will aim to establish a bit of a gap ahead of the next climbs.

Belkov clearly likes these wet descents: the Russian has caught and passed Pirazzi and Chalapud on the descent.

The peloton come over the summit 6:23 down on the two leaders, Pirazzi and Chalapud.

Confirmation of the points over the top of the Cat.1 Vallombrosa: 1. Pirazzi 15pts, 2. Chalapud 9pts, 3. Belkov 5pts. That puts Pirazzi on 36pts and Chalapud on 23pts in the blue jersey competition. The Italian will take Visconti's blue jersey tonight.

Pirazzi takes the points over the summit of the Cat.1 Vallombrosa but Chalapud returned right to his back wheel towards the end of the climb. Belkov crosses the line a lone figure 47 seconds down, before the remnants of the initial break come over the line about 1:15 down led by Pantano of Colombia.

Poor Belkov has been used as a pawn in this game of grudge chess between Pirazzi and Chalapud. First the Colombian puts in a dig, then Pirazzi jumps out of the saddle to power ahead. Chalapud tries to follow, but can't, while Belkov - who was riding clear of the two after they slowed to a complete standstill as part of their on-going petty dispute - is now well off the back.

Chalapud comes to a complete standstill - a track stand on a sodden mountain climb inside a forest - in this zany duel with Pirazzi. It's because he's seen Belkov returning - and he's keen to wait for the Russian rather than spend more time on his own with the Italian.

Pirazzi has ridden back onto the wheel of Chalapud. These two will have to bury their differences and combine - because the lead is down to four minutes now. Back with the pack, Nibali replaces a gilet with a full black rain jacket.

Chalapud ups the pace from the leading group. And the Colombian drops both Belkov and Pirazzi, who was caught dozing off the back of the breakaway.

Arnold Jeannesson of FDJ has retired from the race. The Frenchman crashed a couple of days ago in the wet. He's the second rider to throw in the towel during today's stage after Tomas Gil Martinez of Androni Giocattoli. Before the start, Francesco Chicchi (Vini Fantini) withdrew.

This climb does not really get going for a bit. After the initial slopes there's a small downhill section before the final rise to the summit.

The entire Astana squad is on the front of the peloton as they pass through Paterno. As mentioned earlier, Nibali is wearing a regular gilet over his pink jersey which makes it very hard to pick him out. It's Paolo Tiralongo on the front as the pack rolls through the feed zone.

We're onto the first Cat.1 climb of the 2013 Giro d'Italia: the Vallombrosa climb has an average gradient of 6% and sections of 10%. It's harder than the opening climb today, but still nothing any of the race favourites should fear.

It's very wet now and the peloton is taking the descent very gingerly. Belkov, Pirazzi and Chalapud have 1:05 over the Visconti chasing group and 5:37 over the peloton.

Belkov is pretting on here: Chalapud has managed to tag on, but Pirazzi has been dropped. But it may be more a clase of him dropping back to speak to his Bardiani team car.

Maxim Belkov (Katusha) has joined the two leaders, Chalapud and Pirazzi. The chasing group is 25 seconds down, many of the riders wearing a gilet for protection from this rain. The peloton is 5:10 back.

I spoke too soon - it looks like the rain has now returned, making the roads fairly wet once again. Astana are on the front setting the pace on the descent, as expected.

It's not wet at the moment and so this descent is not as potentially hazardous as it could be. Pirazzi and Chalapud have 25 seconds over the other escapees. After that spat on the sprint for KOM points, it will be interesting to see how these guys combine here on in.

The peloton are led over the summit by a melange of Astana, Blanco and Sky riders 4:52 down on the two leaders, Pirazzi and Chalapud. It remains to be seen if the duo will sit up and wait for the other escapees or press on themselves.