Hello and welcome to live coverage of stage 8 of the Giro d'Italia - an unpredictable 186km ride from Foligno to Arezzo, which includes a 6km dirt-track climb near the finish.

It's sunny now - despite the looming rain clouds - so we should really update the photo of Alpe di Poti which Bennati put up earlier today... How about this one? Although, to be fair, it may have been taken months ago, perhaps even last summer...

Besides Brambilla, who is 1:56 down on GC, the best placed rider in this break is Montaguti, who is 3:22 down.

Trentin takes the time bonus and points at the intermediate sprint ahead of Txetevitvh and Kadri. The peloton passes through at 4:45 so it looks like it's coming down a bit now that Giant have upped the tempo.

We're approaching Daniele Bennati's hometown of Indicatore, which is where we'll see the second intermediate sprint which has 3-2-1 bonus seconds.

Yes, it appears that they peloton - although rolling along at a ferocious pace - is happy to let this one go. The gap is up to 5:30 and we may have two races on - for the stage and for the GC, even if, ironically enough, the pink jersey may go to someone outside that GC battle...

The gap's up to five minutes now so perhaps Giant-Alpecin are happy to let the pink jersey to be taken by Brambilla before Dumoulin takes it back tomorrow in the time trial. After all, he's not losing any time to any of his big rivals out there - just the Italian, who although finishing 13th in the 2012 Giro, shouldn't be a factor come the mountains.

When Peter Sagan won in Arezzo in the 2014 Tirreno-Adriatico the best placed rider on this race to finish was Austalian Simon Clarke, now of Cannondale, who took third place in a group that also included... Andre Greipel of Lotto Soudal.

LottoNL-Jumbo have come to the front to help out Giant with the chase. They're having a quiet but assured race so far, with their man Steven Kruijswijk poised in fifth place overall, and Maarten Tjallingii having worn the blue jersey for a day or two.

The pack cross the summit led by Giant-Alpecin at 4:45. They have a fight on their hands because this break has some real quality in it.

Sean De Bie (Lotto Soudal) beats Giacomo Berlato (Nippo-Vini Fantini) for the points atop the climb, both riders fighting in proxy of their team-mates Tim Wellens and Damiano Cunego, who top the blue jersey mountains classification (Wellens in the hot seat by one point).

The break is on the Cat.3 climb to Scheggia. They're combining well and are 4:50 ahead of the pack for now, with Trentin setting the tempo.

The best placed rider from the Giro on that Tirreno-Adriatico stage to Arezzo won by Van Avermaet in 2015 is ... Filippo Pozzato, who took fourth place while at Lampre-Merida ahead of Fabian Cancellara. Perhaps we'll see the Wilier-Southeast and Trek-Segafredo veterans try their hands today?

The peloton are onto that climb now and it's Giant-Alpecin still setting the pace with a bit of help from Australian national champion Jack Bobridge of Trek-Segafredo. It's a hefty double-digit climb even though it's not categorised. At the back, the pace is almost stationary.

The break is on the punchy climb up to the old town centre of Anghiari - it's a straight ramp flanked either side by fans and pink balloons. It's very steep but not categorised. In fact, it's a warm up for the Cat.3 climb coming up a few kilometres later on. The gap is 4:35.

The gap is up to 4:20 for the 13 leaders so Brambilla is still very much in the virtual maglia rosa. The rain has stopped and the sun is back out as they pass through the town of Anghiari.

When the Giro last came to Arezzo the win went to world champion Mario Cipollini but that was a very different, flat finish. Today's finish is up at the top of town and is a repeat of a finale that ran in Tirreno-Adriatico in both 2014 and 2015, with the wins going to Greg Van Avermat and Peter Sagan, neither of whom are here today.

On Giro Extra now Juan Antonion Flecha is riding the Alpe di Poti and it looks like that it's very muddy and riddled in potholes. The approach may have been covered with some fresh tarmac but the 6km section is riddled with obstacles - as is the twisting descent, which includes sections where the water runs across the road in rivets. There are a few hairpins towards the bottom too. Crashes are more than likely.

The leaders have passed through the feedzone at Monterchi with a gap of four minutes on the pack, which is being led by Giant-Alpecin. The average speed after the second hour of racing today was 46.9km/h so they're riding fast out there.

It's that old cliche: the race may not be won today on the strade bianche but it could well be lost - particularly is cretins throw nails and tacks on the key Alpi di Poti climb and you get a puncture. Local rider Daniele Bennati also took this picture today - as well as photos of fans picking up the tacks. Hopefully they'll get them all up before the race passes through.

The gap is up to 3:20 for the leaders but you sense Giant-Alpecin won't be too keen on letting it get much bigger because Brambilla is only 1:56 down on Dumoulin, making the baby-faced Italian the virtual maglia rosa for now.

Confirmation of the result of the intermediate sprint at Umbertide earlier on: Matteo Trentin took the spoils ahead of Alexey Tsatevich and Giacomo Berlato. The presence of both Trentin and Brambilla in this break suggests Etixx believe that Marcel Kittel stands no chance in thos one today. And they'd be right: not only is there that dirt track climb before the finish, the final 3km include a punchy ramp into the centre of Arezzo. Kittel has also been off the boil since the race entered Italy following his two wins in the Netherlands.