Hello and welcome to live coverage of stage 13 of the Giro d'Italia - a pan-flat (or should that be pizza-flat?) 167km ride from Reggio Emilia to Tortona, and a final day for the sprinters do battle before most of them pack their bags and head for the airport.

The riders are making their way through the centre of Parma, home of the eponymous cured ham and cheese and football club. The gap, which hit a maximum of 2:22 shortly after the start, is down to 1:45. There's still some dampness and the odd puddle on the road, but the rain has stopped.

CORRECTION: The Gazprom-Rusvelo rider in this break is not Ivan Rovny, it's Pavel Brutt - who we last saw colliding into metal building rods during a nasty crash in the Sagrantino time trial a few days ago...

Today's stage finishes in Tortona, the birth town of Il Campionissimo, Fausto Coppi, the five-time Giro winner and double Tour de France champion. It continues this Giro's run of visiting towns with strong associations with former Italian greats: two days ago we had Gino Bartali at Ponte a Ema, yesterday we had Gastone Nencini at Barberino del Mugello, and tomorrow we will have Coppi's home village of Castellania - a stone's throw away from Novi Ligure, the home town of that other champion of champions, Costante Girardengo.

The gap comes down to 2:05 with Lotto Soudal, Quick-Step Floors and Team Sunweb all riding on the front.

Four become three: Dimension Data's Johann van Zyl sits up and lets the other escapees ride on. Odd that the South African got involved in the first place - perhaps he's decided that it's futile to waste energy for nothing and that he's better served to help lead out his compatriot Ryan Gibbons in the final sprint. Gibbons has five top tens so far in this race, but he's yet to crack the top five in bunch sprints.

The advantage of the four leaders quickly stretches out to over two minutes as the Lotto Soudal team-mates of Andre Greipel - who misfired in yesterday's sprint - come to the front to help regulate the pace. There's no way they're going to let any break gain too much leeway - especially seeing that Greipel has confirmed that he will leave the race this evening. The German national champion won stage 2 but has been left frustrated since.

There were a flurry of attacks from the outset before four riders managed to open up a gap: Ivan Rovny (Gazprom-Rusvelo), Johann van Zyl (Dimension Data), Matej Mohoric (UEA Team Emirates) and Vincenzo Albanese (Bardiani-CSF).

They're off! The remaining 185 riders get this flat stage under way...

The riders have rolled out of Albanian-born Eugert Zhupa's home town of Reggio Emilia and the metaphorical gun is about to signal the start of today's stage...

And the umbrellas are out as Tom Dumoulin (pink), Omar Fraile (blue), Fernando Gaviria (cyclamen) and Bob Jungels (white) line up ahead of the start in Reggio Emilia.

Here's what the riders have in store today... and, yes, it's going to be one of those tough days for commentators and breakaway riders alike. Surely it's a bunch sprint on the cards - although the prospect of rain may make things a little more difficult.

It's cloudy and quite blustery at the start in Reggio Emilia as the remaining riders ready themselves at the start. Loads of Colombian fans cheering on their men Nairo Quintana and Fernando Gaviria today - between them, the duo have four wins in this year's Giro, which equals a record for Colombia. And we still have another week of racing to go...

The big news this morning is the withdrawal of Welshman Geraint Thomas, who called it a day after succumbing to the injuries he picked up at the foot of the climb to Blockhaus after he and many of his Sky team-mates were involved in that accident caused by a police motorcycle.

It's fair to say, today's stage may not be the most dramatic of the 100th edition of the Giro d'Italia...

Race leader Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) finished safely in the pack to retain his maglia rosa after a routine day in the saddle. The Dutchman leads Colombian Nairo Quintana (Movistar) by 2:23 in the general classification and compatriot Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) by 2:38. A split in the peloton saw all the big name riders concede six seconds to the first part of the peloton, with Britain's Adam Yates edging a little closer towards the top ten as a result.

Yesterday's, Colombia’s Fernando Gaviria continued his dream Grand Tour debut with a third win in the Giro d'Italia after dominating the bunch sprint at the conclusion of stage 12 in Reggio Emilia. Once again benefiting from a textbook lead-out by his Quick-Step Floors team-mate Max Richeze, Gaviria powered clear to win the 229km stage from Forli – the longest of the race – ahead of Italy’s Jakub Mareczko (Wilier-Selle Italia) and Ireland’s Sam Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe).