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.

Brandle was the second rider to roll down the ramp and easily caught Cheng Ji before the second check, where he was more than two minutes faster than any other rider. The Austrian has set the quickest time at the finish: 51:55 will be the early reference point.

Just to give you an idea of how big the time gaps could be today, Matthias Brandle (IAM Cycling) is currently the fastest at the first intermediate check at the 11.6km point and the Swiss former world hour record holder is a huge 1:24 ahead of second place Jack Bobridge of Trek.

The first 55 riders have already left the start ramp today, including Fabian Cancellara (Trek-Sagefredo) so let's take a look at how they're doing, shall we?

From that you may correctly deduce that the stage is already underway... and you'd be right. Here is the start ramp in Radda in Chianti ahead of Ji's effort. As you can see, the sun is out for this big test for the big race favourites...

That means we're down to 187 riders in this Giro, with Cheng Ji of China and Giant-Alpecin the first to roll down the ramp today at 11:40 BST and Brambilla, the maglia rosa, the last at 15:16 BST.

On top of Kittel's withdrawal the race bids farewell to three riders who finished outside the time limit yesterday: Elia Viviani (Team Sky), Boy Van Poppel (Trek-Segafredo) and Iuri Filosi (Nippo-Vini Fantini). The trio finished together 55:26 down on Brambilla after being dropped some 30km into the stage.

Gianluca Brambilla may be in the pink jersey but everthing's not rosy at Etixx-QuickStep with double stage winner - and earlier maglia rosa - Marcel Kittel calling it a day after yesterday's tough stage. Kittel, a four-time Giro stage winner who has still yet to notch a victory on Italian soil, is going to rest up and prepare for the Tour de France, which he will ride in July. "I'm sad to leave the Giro. I really like the atmosphere I have found here in Italy and I love the support of the Italian fans, but now I feel like I need to recover after a long first part of the season," Kittel said.

It's the first major time trial of the race but not one for the flat-track bullies: the 40.5km loop around Chianti is relentlessly up and down and includes quite a sharp climb up to Panzano in Chianti before the drop down to the finish. Still, Tom Dumoulin will be the favourite - provided he can recover, both physically and mentally, from his nightmare yesterday.

Giant-Alpecin’s Dumoulin – who had looked so assured in his new-found role as race favourite – plummeted out of the top ten after struggling to keep up with his GC rivals on the steep gravel climb of the Alpe di Poti in the business end of the 186-kilometre stage from Foligno to the Tuscan Medieval hilltop city. Brambilla now leads Ilnur Zakarin by 23 seconds in the overall standings with Dutchman Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo) up to third place a further 10 seconds back. Alejandro Valverde, whose initial stinging attack on the dirt-track climb distanced Dumoulin, is fourth at 36 seconds while Vincenzo Nibali completes the top five at 45 seconds.

Yesterday, Italy's Gianluca Brambilla soloed to stage 8 glory in Arezzo and moved into the maglia rosa after Dutchman Tom Dumoulin cracked spectacularly on the decisive climb of a dramatic day on the Giro d’Italia. Etixx-QuickStep’s Brambilla attacked from a breakaway of 13 riders at the start of the brutish gravel section of the Alpe di Poti and held on to win the stage by 1:06 over fellow Italian Matteo Montaguti (Ag2R-La Mondiale).