Hello and welcome to this final ding-dong showdown on the 99th edition of the Giro d'Italia - it's the 134km stage 20 and it features three back-to-back Cat.1 climbs in France before a punchy uphill finish in Italy. Today it where the race will be won and lost - with three riders all within 1:05 at the top of the standings after yesterday's dramatic stage in France.

Fuglsang has done, now it's time for Scarponi to set the tempo. Remember that the Italian veteran was leading the race over the Colle dell'Agnello yesterday before being called back to pace Nibali following Kuijswijk's crash. The tactic worked: Scarponi helped stretch the gap on the flat before Nibali went on to win the stage and move into second on GC. Can Scarpo now be instrumental in his leader's crowning?

Taaramae and Kangert make the connection so we have five riders now leading this stage, with the maglia rosa group - which contains just 14 riders now - riding 10 minutes in arrears.

The three leaders are about to be joined by three other riders from the break - Taaramae, Kangert and Nieve. Atapuma sees them coming and so ups the tempo - and it's too much for Nieve, who's dropped by Taaramae and Kangert.

Finally Astana come to the front through Fuglsang and Scarponi. Majka is just behind and ahead of Kruijswijk, Nibali and Valverde... Chaves, in pink, near the front too.

A reminder of what the riders are tackling at the moment... and it's still Tinkoff's Manuele Boaro who sets the tempo on the front of the pack for Majka. The gap is still 10:15 for the three leaders, so they're making no in-roads. Lone chaser Pirazzi is 30 seconds ahead of the pack - again, not sure what he thinks he'll get out of this attack.

Tinkoff are setting a fast tempo on the front of this pack, paving the way for Majka - but they've left it too late for the stage win, surely. The three leaders still have 9:35 to play with. Astana are there with Tinkoff, and then we have Kruijswijk, Chaves, Nibali, Majka and Valvarde. All the remaining big guns.

Stefano Pirazzi is on the front of teh pack for Bardiani - but it seems a bit fruitless. He's too late for the stage win, and he's no factor in any other competition.

He's back: Visconti joins Dombrowski and Atapuma in the lead. Meanwhile, the peloton passes under the 30-to-go banner and the pace has been increased, resulting in riders being tailed off one by one.

Visconti is closing in on the two leaders, while further back the pace is picking up ahea do this climb for the race favourites. Orica have one man on the front, but you sense that the initiative will come from Astana through Scarponi and Fuglsang for Nibali, who trails Chaves by 44 seconds in the overall standings.

Atapuma joins Dombrowski on the front, while Visconti is not far behind. The main pack still rolls along at 10:25 - but we can expect a lot of movement once they get on this climb, because it's now or never for some of the riders who want to win the maglia rosa.

Attack by Joe Dombrowski! The American dances clear of his fellow escapees - Visconti thinks about chasing it down, but has second thoughts.

After all that effort fighting back, Brambilla has been dropped right at the start of this climb. Nieve looks to be in some trouble too...

Giovanni Visconti rolls through the second intermediate sprint at Isola in pole position ahead of Kangert and Dombrowski - and that's the start of the next climb, the Cat.1 Colle della Lombarda (19.8km at 7.5% with a maximum gradient of 12% and rising to 2350m). And it's a climb making it's debut appearance in the Giro...

Chapeau, Gianluca Brambilla! The italian is back with the leading group after dropping Stefan Denifl on the descent and fighting for his place. Their gap is 9:15 over the main pack, so one of these chaps should win today's stage.

Valverde whips the newspaper out from under his jersey, pauses, isn't sure what to do with it, then starts reading it jokingly, before the inevitable: throwing it on the side of the road. The Movistar man may be fined for that flagrent piece of littering... but at least shows he has a sense of humour.

Gianluca Brambilla is burying himself to join the seven leaders - the Italian has ridden to just 30 seconds in arrears. He's has a great Giro, it must be said: a stage win, two days in pink, a large hand in one team-mate's win (Trentin) and another's run in pink (Jungels).

Steven Kruijswijk has two LottoNL-Jumbo team-mates with him - team-mates who he really could have done with yesterday. It's all going to come down to the two last climbs on this race, the second of which is only a short Cat.3 climb, but it's a steep one.

The chasers have caught Nieve so we have seven riders out ahead: Darwin Atapuma (BMC), Alexander Foliforov (Gazprom-RusVelo), Joe Dombrowski (Cannondale), Mikel Nieve (Team Sky), Rein Taaramae (Katusha), Giovanni Visconti (Movistar) and Tanel Kangert (Astana). They have a couple of minutes over Gianluca Brambilla (Etixx-QuickStep) and Stefan Denifl (IAM Cycling) and 6:20 over Aleksey Rybalkin (Gazprom-RusVelo) and 8:45 over the pack of main favourites.

Diego Ulissi - who was in the break - has been caught and passed by the big GC riders on this descent. And still, Nieve is yet to be caught by the chasers. He has 25 seconds, with the pack at nine minutes now.

And make no mistake - it's a big test for Kruijswijk: there's more or less 40km of descending from the top of the Bonette to the foot of the Colle della Lombarda, with the last 10km a false flat following a small kick up.

The pack is strung out on this descent with Valverde and Majka on the front, Chaves and Nibali just behind and Kruijswijk not far behind. It's a big test of his courage and resolve for the Dutchman after that crash on the descent of the Agnello yesterday.