Hello and welcome to live coverage of stage 9 of the Giro d'Italia - the first major mountain test as the riders tackle the infamous Blockhaus at the end of the 149km stage from Montenero di Bisaccia.

There's a bit of beef between Marcato and Sanchez in the break as the two riders dispute about something. Sanchez then puts on the whole Big Man On Campus act by pushing Fraile into line and generally playing the I'm A Veteran, Get Out Of My Way And Do What I Say card.

Not only proof that the peloton have given up on the chase, but more to the point - have you ever seen so much hay in one place???

Forget what I said: this break is certainly going places. They've stretched the lead out to 2:20 now with that three-man chase group of Rolland, Sacha Modolo (UAE Team Emirates) and Tomasz Marczynski (Lotto Soudal) trialing them by 35 seconds.

The nine leaders are: Alexey Tstatevich (Gazprom-RusVelo), Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo), Marco Marcato (UAE Team Emirates), Omar Fraile (Dimension Data), Jan Tratnik (CCC Sprandi Polkowice), Matteo Montaguti (Ag2R-La Mondiale), Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana), Matteo Busato (Wilier-Triestina) and Iljo Keisse (Quick-Step Floors). And the gap is growing... Pierre Rolland (Cannondale-Drapac) is one of the riders in pursuit.

We join the stage LIVE now and this nine-man break has a slender lead of 30 seconds over the pack. They've been through the first intermediate sprint at Vasto and have three pursuers on the road, with the peloton just a bit further back. The gaps are minimal for now so it wouldn't be a surprise if it all comes back together again.

Bardiani-CSF led the chase after the wildcard Italian team missed out on getting a rider in the break.

There was an early break as nine riders pinged off the front - including Luis Leon Sanchez, the Astana rider who was on the attack yesterday.

They're off! The remaining 191 riders get this short but sharp stage under way.

A reminder that it is this man in pink... but Bob Jungels will find it tough to stay on top today, that's for sure. He has six seconds over Geraint Thomas of Team Sky and 10 seconds over most of the big favourites, including defending champion Nairo Quintana and the 2014 winner Nairo Quintana.

Here's what the riders have to expect on this first high summit finish of the race - and it's an entirely new ascent of the infamous Blockhaus which should cause fireworks.

Yesterday, the race sparked into action in Puglia as Spaniard Gorka Izaguirre of Movistar took the spoils from the break on a day maglia rosa Bob Jungels took a tumble but retained his lead.