Hello and welcome to live coverage of stage 4 of the Giro d'Italia - and it's the first summit (or as good as when that summit is a volcano) finish of this year's race, an explosive ride up Mont Etna.

Eugenio Alafaci, who was part of the original break, has almost been caught by the pack. It's all Bahrain Merida now - although Gaviria still rides third wheel, doing the pink jersey justice. Andre Greipel is one of the big name riders to have been spat out the back.

The pack is really strung out now as Tuft continues the pace setting with numerous groups of riders trying to fight back on. The three leaders have 5:35 to play for and nothing is guaranteed - they may make it, or they may be caught if the pace really ramps up ahead of the final climb in 15km time.

When the peloton comes through that flagstone ramp zone many of them are forced to stop and unclip, such is the gradient. Oh, and there's a puncture for Alex Edmondson of Orica-Scott. Off the back of the pack, many riders have now been distanced - including the maglia azzurra, Daniel Teklehaimanot.

Once again it's Gaviria who leads the pack through the intermediate sprint - but perhaps he hasn't read the memo that dictates there are only points for the top three riders in intermediate sprints in this stage...

The break are grappling with a seriously steep cobbled ramp in the down of Biancavilla - it's almost as tough as the Koppenberg! The gap is still six minutes as birthday boy Svein Tuft comes to the front to help lead the chase for Orica-Scott team-mate Adam Yates.

Brutt takes maximum points in the second intermediate sprint - and with it three bonus seconds. Interestingly, that puts him six seconds clear now of Polanc on GC, so if they finish together and managed to hold off the peloton by a couple of minutes, then it will be the Russian who could take the maglia rosa - depending on bonus seconds at the finish.

There are four Sicilian riders in the peloton: Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain Merida), Giovanni Visconti (also Bahrain Merida), Paolo Tiralongo (Astana) and Salvatore Puccio (Team Sky).

Nairo Quintana is off the back of the peloton being paced back by two Movistar team-mates. There looks to be no concern with the Colombian so perhaps it was a planned mechanical or a simple call of nature.

So, a reminder for those who have tuned in late. We had four riders out ahead but they are down to three after Eugenio Alafaci (Trek Segafredo) was dropped on a punchy ramp ahead of the intermediate sprint. So, the three leaders now are: Jan Polanc (UAE Team Emirates), Jacques Janse van Rensburg (Dimension Data) and Pavel Brutt (Gazprom-Rusvelo). They lead the Quick-Step and Bahrain Merida-led pack by 6:12. Alafaci is riding around 1:45 down on his former co-escapees.

Despite the uphill gradient, Fernando Gaviria edges clear of the pack to cross the intermediate sprint point in pole position. There are no points for fifth place but he's just enjoying his day out in pink. The gap is 6:05 for the four leaders. So, if Gaviria is going to lose the pink jersey today who will take over? And who will win the stage? Send me your thoughts on Twitter, @saddleblaze. I'll publish the best ones.

The first intermediate sprint is more like a climb: the moustachioed Alafaci is really struggling and is dropped by his fellow escapees as Brutt rides clear to take the maximum 8pts over the line. It will no doubt come back together as the riders thread their way through the town of Bronte.

The break is on the rolling roads between the two climbs and the gap has stabilised at six minutes. It's fair to say, the Sicilian scenery is fairly breaktaking...

Here's the aftermath of the Losada incident. We haven't heard whether or not the Spaniard has got back on his bike, but he didn't look in too good a shape, holding his collarbone as he was.

CRASH: Alberto Losada of Katusha-Alpecin is standing on the side of the road with his bike in the middle of it. He doesn't look too comfortable. It looks like his wheel got stuck in a grate crossing the road and it slammed him over the bars. The doctor is with him and there are many shakes of the head...

Alafaci is the first of the four escapees to pick up a musette as the break approaches the feed zone with a gap of 5:40. Over lunch, why not listen to Geraint Thomas's thoughts about today's finish on Mount Etna... someone should probably tell him the climb is going up the opposite side to that scaled in 2011, mind.

It's Canadian veteran Svein Tuft's 40th birthday today; he is currently 132nd in the overall standings and is one of the chief domestiques for Orica-Scott team-mate Adam Yates. This time three years ago Tuft took the maglia rosa after his GreenEdge team won the opening TTT in Belfast on his 37th birthday.

The descent happens in three sections with each split by a slight uphill segment. The leaders are already on the second downhill section but their gap is down to 5:55. It's worth adding that the road is very rolling in between the bottom of the descent and the start of the final climb, with at least four uncategorised lumps. Many rain capes and jackets have come on - it's still quite fresh out there at this altitude.

Daniel Teklehaimanot adds two points to his KOM tally to consolidate his lead in the maglia azzurra standings. The Eritrean leads the peloton over the summit 6:24 down on the pack and just ahead of Dimension Data team-mate Omar Fraile and then the pink jersey of Fernando Gaviria. We should add that it was Polanc who took third place and Brutt who took fourth, adding four points to his one solitary digit in the KOM standings. So, as it is, Teklahaimanot has 22 points, Janse Van Rensburg has 15 points and Fraile has 10 points - so we have three Dimension Data riders at the top of the mountains classification. You'd think it was a target, or something.

Here's the flashpoint between Janse van Rensburg and Polanc over the summit of that last climb.

But it's Janse van Rensburg who bounds clear in pursuit of the points to protect his team-mate Teklahaimanot's lead in the KOM standings. He pips Polanc over the summit before the Slovenian lays into him for apparently closing the door near the barriers. A bit harsh, that; the South African hadly wavered off his line. Unless the beef was about some agreement made earlier...

Pavel Brutt is driving the break through this wooded section near the summit of the climb. The gap has dropped ever so slightly to 7:17. There will be 15 points for the man who crests the summit first in 1km - and Brutt is already on the board in the KOM standings so expect him to be in the hunt.