Hello and welcome to live coverage of stage 9 of the Giro d'Italia - a rolling 40.5km individual time trial through the vineyards of Chianti in Tuscany.

Mikel Landa is 31 seconds down on Amador at the first check.

As has third-place Steven Kruisjwijk (LottoNL-Jumbo).

Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) has started his ride...

CRASH: Valerio Conti (Lampre-Merida) loses his front wheel on a tight bend near the finish, clearly slipping on the white paint.

It's Vincenzo Nibali time! The 2013 champion gets his ITT under way. Does the Shark have his bite today?

It's not going well for Tom Dumoulin: he's 15 seconds down at the first check, and Amador is clearly on a flier.

Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEdge) is a picture of concentration as he prepares to get started. The Colombian has been solid in this opening week and will need to limit his losses today.

Rigoberto Uran (Cannondale) is next down the ramp and the Colombian won on a similar circuit in the Barolo wine region two years ago. Can he recapture that form today?

Rafal Makja on course now. Confusingly, the host broadvaster showed images of his fellow Pole and team-mate Pawel Poljanski crashing on a roundabout shortly after the start, which made the commentators initially believe that Majka had come a cropper.

New fastest time at the first check - Amador goes through six seconds faster despite the wet roads. He was third in the opening time trial so certainly one to watch today.

Bob Jungels is on a stormer - he passes through the first check one second down on Laengen.

Domenico Pozzovivo (Ag2R-La Mondiale) is another one who will need to limit his losses - although his time trialling has improved over the last few years.

Now it's the top ten as Mikel Landa (team Sky) rolls down the ramp. The next hour will be very important for the Spaniard - this is not his faviourite discipline and he needs to limit his losses if he wants to enter the business end of this race within striking distance of the pink jersey.

Down the ramp he rolls and Tom Dumoulin gets his ITT under way - can he defy the rain and do enough to seize back the maglia rosa?

We're approaching Dumoulin time and the top ten now so strap yourself in! Andrey Amador and Jakob Fuglsang are on course, so the Dutchman is next.

Poor Ludvigsson is now dragging two riders along: Astana's Valerio Agnoli has joined the illegal train behind Tsatevich.

Bob Jungels, in the white skin suit as the best young rider in this race, rolls down the ramp. The Eticc rider has has a bit of a fail when it comes to attaching his rear dossier, which flaps in the wind above his posterior.

The commissaires are clearly taking a rather lax attitude to the rules out there: Russian rider Alexey Tsatevich (Katusha) has been riding in the back wheel of Tobias Ludvigsson for the past 20-odd kilometres since being caught and passed by the Swede.

And here comes Kung, who's been battling the rain since the start - and he comes home 58 seconds in arrears in sixth place. It could have been so different had his ride not coincided with the biggest of the downpours.

Sixth best time for Kung at the third check, 41 seconds down on Roglic. It's now downhill all the way to the finish, so to speak.

Twenty odd minutes until Tom Dumoulin gets his ride under way. Here's the Dutchman warming up...