Hello and welcome to live coverage of stage 12 of the Giro d'Italia - a 229km ride from Forli to Reggio Emilia, and the longest stage of the race. Besides two lower category climbs in the opening half, it's pretty much flat all the way and so will definitely re-open the doors for a ding-dong battle between the sprinters.

At the intermediate sprint in Barberino del Mugello it's Marcato who takes the points ahead of Maestri and Firsanov - but it's an uncontested affair. Barberino, incidentally, was the home town of Gastone Nencini, winner of the 1957 Giro d'Italia and the 1960 Tour de France. An amateur painter and, if rumours are to be believed, a chronic doper, the chain-smoking Italian was renowned for his descending skills and would often challenge his training partners to races where the runner-up bought the evening aperatif. "The only reason to follow Nencini downhill would be if you had a death wish", the French rider Raphaël Géminiani once said.

The first intermediate sprint is coming up in a few kilometres...

Here's a little video on today's route - the longest stage in the race (I'll add for a third time now), don't you know.

The riders roll through the feed zone. Today is going to be one of those days where Eurosport commentators Rob Hatch and Sean Kelly really earn their crust.

You have to think that the break are on a hiding to nothing today, what with there being so few remaining opportunities for the sprinters in the race. Back with the bunch and everything has strung out in the wind as the riders enter the outskirts of Borgo San Lorenzo. The sun has disappeared behind the clouds and there's talk of a potential storm later on...

So, that's your round-up to events so far today... and we're now back on the road LIVE as the three-man break of Maestri, Marcato and Firsanov ride with a gap of 4:45 over the peloton, which has split a little on that descent.

Firsanov went over the top in pole position ahead of Maestri and Marcato. Meanwhile, around six minutes later there was a fierce battle for the remaining points as yesterday's stage winner Omar Fraile and the maglia azzurra Jan Polanc - both tied for 44 points in the KOM competition - sprinted clear. And it was the Spaniard who did the business to take four points over the top, with Polanc picking up two. That means Fraile moved into the virtual maglia azzurra on the road... with one more climb still to come.

The three leaders approached the start of the Cat.2 Colle di Casaglia (17.1km at 3.4% and a maximum of 8.8%) with a lead of almost seven minutes over the peloton.

Sergey Firsanov (Gazprom-Rusvelo) and Marco Marcato (UAE Team Emirates) attacked early on, with Mirco Maestri (Bardiani-CSF) bounding clear in pursuit. Maestri was in no man's land for a while before finally bridging over with 215km remaining.

Here's the official map and profile of the stage...

We join the race LIVE with the riders on the descent of the first of two climbs. A break of three have 4:30 over the pack in a stage that is odd-on to culminate with a bunch sprint. Let's bring you a quick recap of what's happened so far...

Here are the riders at the start just before rolling out of Forli... with Dumoulin in pink, Jan Polanc in blue, Fernando Gaviria in cyclamen and Bob Jungels in white.

The sun was out for the start today and it's scheduled to be the hottest day of the race so far, with temperatures in the high 20s. 186 riders made it to the start for this, the longest stage of the race.

Costa Rican Andrey Amador – a Movistar team-mate of Colombian pre-race favourite Nairo Quintana – came home in that break to move up to sixth in the overall standings, while the impressive Kangert also moved into the top ten – at the expense of Dutchman Steven Kruijswijk, who had another day to forget. Race leader Tom finished safely in a group of main favourites 1:37 down on Fraile and the other leading escapees. The towering Team Sunweb rider retained his emphatic lead of 2:23 over Quintana, with a second Dutchman, Bauke Mollema of Trek-Segafredo, completing the top three at 2:38.

Yesterday, escape artist Omar Fraile starred over four demanding climbs before finding the extra reserves to claim a superb victory in the Tuscan hills on a thrilling stage 11. Fraile, the 26-year-old Spanish climber from Team Dimension Data, yo-yoed constantly off the front of the 161km stage in Tuscany, picking up maximum points over three climbs before getting the better in a nail-biting four-way sprint in Bagno di Romagna to take his first ever stage victory in a Grand Tour.