Hello and welcome to live coverage of stage 18 of the Giro d'Italia - a 170km slog from the Swiss town of Melide to Verbania, which includes the Cat.1 Monte Ologno.

Confirmation that Contador has increased his lead on Landa to 5:15 on GC, with Aru now trailing the Spaniard by 6:05.

Steven Kruijswijk, the blue jersey from LottoNL-Jumbo, leads the main pack across the line just over a minute behind Contador, who will we well over five minutes ahead on GC tonight.

Alberto Contador crosses the finish line in Ryder Hesjedal's wheel 6:06 down on the stage winner. But that's not the gap that matters - it's how long it will take for the Landa-Aru group to now come home...

Contador and Hesjedal are driving to the finish - and have dropped Villella. They're trying to make as big inroads over the main pack as possible - Contador for the maglia rosa and Hesjedal for his top ten aspirations.

Today's winner...

Chad Haga (Giant Alpecin) crosses the line three minutes down. He was in that initial break before being distanced on Monte Ologno. Soon we'll have Contador coming home...

Sylvain Chavanel (IAM Cycling) leads the chasing group over the line another 10 seconds back.

Francesco Bongiorno (Bardiani-CSF) crosses the line for second place 47 seconds down.

The Belgian milks it on the home straight - and so he might. It's Philippe Gilbert's second win in a week for BMC.

Under he goes. This will be Gilbert's 58th professional win, apparently.

Gilbert is already pumping his fist and pointing back to the BMC team car. He's got over a last rise and now approaches the one-to-go banner...

The chasers are all over the road as they continue the chase - but it will all be in vain... Bongiorno is the latest to solo clear - but surely too much, too late.

The Landa-Aru gap has cut the deficit to 1:15 on Contador.

Behind, an attack from Nocentini is chased down by Gilbert's BMC team-mate Moinard.

Gilbert is all smiles - he knows that he will probably win this. The chasing group has sat up...

The gap for the Contador group is still just 1:30 so despite all the efforts, Landa and Aru could close down to a minute before the finish.

Gilbert's lead is still very slender: 34 seconds.

Katusha's Yuri Trofimov has a dig from the main group, looking to put pressure on Astana on this descent. The Russian is in fifth on GC.

Gilbert has opened up a gap - he clearly wants this win badly. He has 25 seconds on the seven chasers. Contador, Hesjedal and Villella are 5:35 down but 1:45 ahead of the Landa-Aru pack.

The leaders are on the final uphill section ahead of the last, longest stretch of this descent. And they are about to be caught by the chasing group, so we will soon have eight riders in front, with BMC making up 25% of the break. And Gilbert exploits that by following through straight away with an attack.