Hello and welcome to live coverage of stage 15 of the Giro d'Italia - the first Alpine stage of the race, a 165km slog from Marostica to Madonna di Campiglio.

Richie Porte among the riders dropped early on this climb. I really doubt we'll see much more of the Australian in this year's Giro...

With Gavazzi almost swept up by the pack, Eduardo Zardini (Bardiani-CSF) takes off from the pack. He catches his countryman on a steep 11% segment of this climb, which had a much harder first half than the second part.

BMC's Bookwalter is the first to be dropped from the leading group.

The four leaders have 1:25 on Gavazzi and 2:10 on the pack.

The leaders are approaching the start of the Cat.1 Passo Daone (8.4km at 9.2% and maximum gradient of 14%). It's a very hard, narrow and tight left-hand turn onto the climb - and will be a real battle when the peloton comes up here...

So, just the four leaders now: Kanstantin Siutsou (Team Sky), Hubert Dupont (Ag2R-La Mondiale), Brent Bookwalter (BMC) and Giovanni Visconti (Movistar). They have 3:15 over the peloton, with Francesco Gavazzi (Southeast) riding in between. The Italian missed the move, but clearly refused to sit up alongside the other chasing riders. He's 52 down on the leaders.

The four leaders are combining well - in stark contrast with the chasing six, who seem utterly disinterested and are about to be caught by the peloton. Very peculiar, indeed.

Bookwalter and Dupont have joined Siutsou and Visconti so we have four riders out ahead and five chasing behind. Although they're not so much chasing as cruising along in disaccord. No one looks too bothered at all. As for Gavazzi - he's disappeared completely.

Siutsou and Visconti have edged ahead of the other escapees, clearly uphappy with the current pace. The main object of their ire is that man Paulinho, of Contador's Tinkoff-Saxo team, who is refusing to work. The Portuguese veteran has already been the target of some chit chat from Astana's Rosa.

Before the Passo Daone we have the intermediate sprint at Ponte Arche - athough the break will mop up all the poiints ahead of any sprinters who may still be kicking around in the main pack. The gap is up to 3:05.

The riders are passing the Lake of Toblino as they continue the undulating run towards the two Cat.1 climbs that crown this stage. The 10 leaders now have 3:30 over the peloton, which is being led by Chris Juul-Jensen of Tinkoff-Saxo.

Brent Bookwalter takes on a can of coke in the break, while Kevin Reza answers a call of nature on the side of the road back with the break. For some reason, the helicopter camera man lingers for quite some time with his zoom lens...

It's lunch time for the peloton, who are busy taking on musettes and discarding empty bidons and gel wrappers. The gap is 2:55 now. On the front we have Astana and Tinkoff-Saxo - the two most prominant teams of this year's Giro.

It's Intxausti's team-mate Visconti who is the best placed rider on GC in this group. The Spaniard is 6:04 down on pink jersey Alberto Contador, who now leads Astana's Fabio Aru by 2:28 and surprise package Andre Amador, another Movistar rider, by 3:36. Yesterday's long time trial - won by Sky's Vasil Kiryienka - really blew apart the GC and gave Contador quite a cushion at the top of the standings.

There are 39 KOM points up for grabs today - hence the presence of Intxausti, who is currently leading the blue jersey standings with 61 points to Simon Geschke's 53. The Spaniard took the points on the first climb, La Fricca, but this break did not form in full until the descent.

An interesting break, this. It includes two stage winners in Zakarin and Intxausti, two riders apiece from Movistar and Ag2R-La Mondiale, and individual riders from the 'Big Three' teams in Sky, Tinkoff-Saxo and Astana.

After another fast and furious start to the stage - with an average of 45kmph for the first two hours, on a mountain stage! - things have finally settled. The gap for the 10 leaders is up to 2:28 now on this rise to the feed zone. Then we have a false flat ahead of the final two back-to-back Cat.1 climbs - including that summit finish at Madonna di Campiglio, which has not featured in the Giro since 1999 when Marco Pantani won before being kicked out of the race.

The leaders are: Ilnur Zacharin (Katusha), Giovanni Visconti (Movistar), Benat Intxausti (Movistar), Sergio Paulinho (Tinkoff-Saxo), Kanstantsin Siutsou (Team Sky), Hubert Dupont (Ag2R-La Mondiale), Diego Rosa (Astana), Matteo Montaguti (Ag2R-La Mondiale), Francesco Gavazzi (Southeast) and Brent Bookwalter (BMC).

We join the race with 80km remaining and the first climb - the Cat.2 ascent to La Fricca - completed. We have a group of eight riders with a slender gap of one minute over the peloton.

The big news at the start today was that Team Sky's Richie Porte would continue the Giro, despite lying almost nine minutes down on general classification following his latest set-back yesterday, in the individual time trial. 177 riders started the stage, with only Kristoff Vandewalle (Trek Factory Racing) and Oscar Gatto (Androni Sidermec) calling it a day overnight.