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.

CRASH: Juan Jose Lobato (Movistar) has crashed in the peloton. Team-mate Ion Izaguirre is waiting for him, but it doesn't look too good. He seemed to have gone off into a wall on a tight left-hander. Meanwhile, the pack has started the climb.

Konig is apparently back with the peloton, which is bring driven hard by Tinkoff-Saxo. They haven't forgotten about Astana's tactics the other day with Contador picked up a puncture....

Riders in the break are being dropped now, starting with Haga. But the big news is that Mikel Landa appears to have been distanced by that crash in the peloton...

CRASH: Practically the entire Sky team have gone down heavily in the pack. Vasil Kiryienka and Elia Viviani went down badly. Leopold Konig is there, as is Salvatore Puccio. We have riders from Lotto Soudal and CCC Sprandi Polkowice on the deck too.

The break is onto the beginning of the Cat.1 climb of Monte Ologno. It's 10.5km long with an average gradient of 9% and a maximum gradient of 13%. Those steepest ramps are at the start - so we can expect a bit of action behind in the pack as they jostle for positioning ahead of the climb. They won't be here for another 12 minutes though...

Eurosport spoke to Sylvain Chavanel this morning: "It's the leader's team that makes the race but we're going to have to see if we can make the break. The profile is quite simple, but of course the last climb is going to difficult. But with the downhill I can probably try something. I'll try stay focused, anticipate what happens, and get into a break. Since the start of the race, it's been hard to get into a break that sticks. But today could be the day."

Gilbert, Belkov and Weening are all former Giro d'Italia stage winners.

The riders are passing through the finish town of Verbania right now, on the shores of Lake Maggiore. We'll now have a 50km loop up Monte Ologno and back. It's the first time the Giro has ever attempted this 10km climb so it's a little journey into the unknown... The gap has still around the 12:30 mark.

Tinkoff-Saxo are back on the front of the pack, with seven team-mates there for maglia rosa Alberto Contador. Astana are tucked in behind - a usual sight in this year's race on the flat terrain. The gap is 12:45.

Bernie Eisel (Team Sky) has been pulling on the front of the pack, helping to stablise the gap to around 12:30.

The break has crested a little hill ahead of the intermediate sprint at Beno. We now have a 30km run to the foot of the decisive climb. Philippe Gilbert, incidentally, picked up maximum points at the sprint. Remember, the Belgian has already won a stage in this year's race - stage 12 at Vicenza, Monte Berico.

With two tough days in the Alps ahead of Sunday's finale in Milan, the peloton has bigger fish to fry than this 12-man break, whose lead is now approaching 13 minutes. It will be interesting to see if Astana take it up on the climb - if not necessarily to try and win this race (the Giro) then to try and get rid of a rival for the next (the Tour de France). After all, the harder Contador is made to work in pink, the harder he'll find it to take the yellow from Vincenzo Nibali in July...

In all the excitement we forgot to mention that it's a hot, cloudless day in northern Italy. The gap is now up to 12 minutes and so it's pretty much certain: the winner today will be one of the 12 riders in this group.

The gap for the 12 leaders is over 11 minutes now.

The leaders pass through the feed zone at Feriolo - and it looks like those three chasers (Ferrari, Felline and Herrada) have called off their effort and returned to the peloton. Ferrari was earlier involved in that crash with a race vehicle that ended Damiano Cunego's Giro.

We're hearing news that the crash that did for Cunego and Ferrari was caused by an official race motorbike... More on that when we get it confirmed.

Here's a sneak peak at today's break, being driven by Chad Haga (Giant Alpecin) and Francesco Bongiorno (Bardiani-CSF).

The gap has ballooned to 9:20 for the leaders, with those three riders still chasing on. It's fair to assume that this is a move that should well stick - even if there are fireworks in the pack behind when Astana throw down the inevitable hammer. So, who's your tip for the win? Have your say below...

So, this is an interesting group, with BMC holding the ace card what with two riders in it. Gilbert and Moinard are quality riders and not bad climbers on their day. One of them could well win today. That said, GreenEdge will fancy their chances with Weening, while both Villella and Nocentini are ones to watch, while no one can deny Chavanel's spunky exuberance and careworn experience.

The leading dozen riders have 2:50 over the chasing trio who themselves have 3:40 over the peloton. That break formed after 48km of riding.

Damiano Cunego - the 2004 Giro champion - has since withdrawn after that crash. More on the incident when we get it...