Hello and welcome to live coverage of stage 5 of the Giro d'Italia. It's the first mountaintop finish as the riders head to the Apennine ski resort of Abetone for what could be a thrilling finale.

Astana really took the race by the scruff of its neck yesterday, chasing down the leading group and setting such a high tempo that Alberto Contador was left with no team-mates after Mick Rogers finally cracked. After Fabio Aru attacked, only Contador and Richie Porte could follow. The Spaniard could call on Roman Kreuziger, who was - oddly - involved in the large break. Rigoberto Uran of Etixx lost 42 seconds to his rivals.

An early attack came from a group of five riders: Axel Domont (Ag2R-La Mondiale), Serghei Tvetcov (Androni Sidermec), Silvan Dillier (BMC), Sylvain Chavanel (IAM) and Jan Polanc (Lampre-Merida). They quickly built up a lead of two minutes over the peloton.

The remaining 191 riders rolled out of La Spezia at 12:15 UK time. Two withdrawals yesterday: Gianni Meersman (Etixx-QuickStep) and Robert Wagner (LottoNL-Jumbo).

What a stage we had yesterday, with Italian youngster Davide Formolo holding onto the win despite the race's big guns battling it out on the third and final climb of the day. Read all about it in yesterday's report below...

The five stage of this compelling 98th edition of the Giro is a 152km slog into the Apennines - passing closely to Oleg Tinkov's summer Italian Tuscan retreat at Lido di Camaiore. There are two categorised climbs, including the Cat.2 ascent to Abetone - the hardest of the race so far.