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.

Damiano Cunego - the 2004 Giro champion - has since withdrawn after that crash.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

Italians Roberto Ferrari (Lampre Merida) and Damiano Cunego (Nippo-Vini Fantini) were in the break but they reportedly had a crash. Ferrari is back on his bike and chasing down the leading group with two others - Jesus Herrada (Movistar) and Fabio Felline (Trek Factory Racing).

The 12-man break in full: Chad Haga (Giant Alpecin), Davide Villella (Cannondale-Garmin), Matteo Busato (SouthEast), Pieter Weening (Orica-GreenEdge), Sylvain Chavanel (IAM Cycling), David De La Cruz (Etixx-QuickStep), Philippe Gilbert and Amael Moinard (BMC), Francesco Manuel Bongiorno (Bardiani CSF), Rinaldo Nocentini (Ag2R-La Mondiale), Maxim Belkov (Katusha) and Kanstantsin Siutsou (Team Sky).

BREAK: Over a dozen riders have managed to edge ahead of the peloton, including veterans Philippe Gilbert (BMC) and Sylvain Chavanel (IAM Cycling).

Still no break after a fast start to the stage. A reminder that Dutchman Steven Kruijswijk leads the blue jersey mountains classification by one slender point over Spain's Benat Intxausti (Movistar). We can expect one - or perhaps both - of those riders to get in today's break in a bid to pick up more points on Monte Ologno.

French veteran Jerome Pineau (IAM Cycling) has called it a day and withdrawn from the race. He was in a break last week but has otherwise acted as the Swiss team's road captain. Now we have 168 riders left in the race.

A fast pace in the peloton deterred any early breaks. Yesterday, Giacomo Nizzolo missed out on the win but did manage to wrest the red jersey from shoulders of Elia Viviani. The Trek Factory Racing rider has a lead of 17 points over Sacha Modolo, with Viviani now 25 points down in third place after the Team Sky rider could only muster an 11th place finish in the sprint.

169 riders took to the start this morning at Melide. The first 120km of today's stage is largely flat so expect a fairly decent-sized break getting away to establish a large lead ahead of the climb.

It was another win for the host nation yesterday - the seventh of the race - as Sacha Modolo sprinted to his second, and Lampre-Merida's fourth, scalp of the Giro in Lugano. There was no change on GC, with Contador retaining his 4:02 lead over Mikel Landa of Astana. Fabio Aru is a further 50 seconds off the pace after his travails on Wednesday's stage to Aprica, won by his team-mate Landa.

It's a medium mountain stage with just that one climb - but its position near the finish should spark some activity from the main protagonists of the race, and its followed by a long descent to the finish where race leader Alberto Contador will have to keep very much on the ball.