Hello and welcome to live coverage of the big one: it's double Stelvio day on the Giro d'Italia with the 222km queen stage 16 from Rovetta to Bormio - one that also includes the fearsome Mortirolo. Sit tight, buckle up, and join us for the ride...

Igor Anton and Mikel Landa - former Euskaltel team-mates a long time ago - open up a small gap near the summit. It's the Team Sky rider, who is wearing a jacket and gilet, who jumps clear in pursuit of the KOM points. Anton can't keep up with him, while Sanchez is a bit further back and ahead of the other escapees.

Chapeau, Winner! Anacona manages to rejoin the leaders just ahead of the summit - so Movistar now have three in this leading group of nine. Options.

Dario Cataldo, the last man to crest the summit of the Stelvio in pole position - back in 2014 during a stage won by Quintana - is still with the main favourites. Nibali, Pinot, Jungels, Pozzovivo, Zakarin, Mollema, Yates, Formolo - they're all here with Quintana and Dumoulin.

Will anyone attack before the summit or will they keep everything for the two descents and the final ascent? The eight leaders are still being driven by Deignan, Landa and Sanchez. They have 17 seconds on Anacona and 2:12 on the main pack. Dumoulin puts on a gilet - with a bit of help from Zakarin - and still looks in control.

Little attack by Tejay Van Garderen of BMC - although he's only out long enough to reel in Sebastian Henao, who was in the break, before the Trek-led pack reel him in again. That was the first time we've seen the American go forward - and not backwards - in this race, more or less.

Omar Fraile, the maglia azzurra, has been caught and past by the pink jersey group. The Spaniard will be hoping that neither Dumoulin nor Quintana, or even Zakarin for that matter, win today's stage because they're all close to his points tally in the KOM standings.

Mendez, Costa, ten Dam, Grosschartner, Rolland and Dombroswki ride in the chasing group from which Anacona has just attacked. They're about a minute down on the leaders, who are being driven by Deignan and Sanchez.

The first signs of snow on the side of the road... Meanwhile, Anacona has pushed on from that chasing group, dropping around six riders who he was with. Quite odd to see him push on rather than wait for Quintana - perhaps the plan is going to be put into place later on, hence the quick rethink by the Movistar DS, who drives up alongside Anacona for a chat.

The eight leaders are: Amador, Izaguirre, Kruijswijk, Landa, Deignan, Sanchez, Anton and Hirt. They have 2:25 over the pack with a chasing group being led by Anacona about 45 seconds down. Rolland and Fraile were with the leaders but have been distanced a little.

Flashpoint: Bauke Mollema and then Tom Dumoulin both lash out at a Colombian fan who appears to have given Nairo Quintana a little push...

Lots of riders being shelled out of both the leading group and the main pack - including ten Dam, who is perhaps going to drop back to help out Dumoulin. Dombrowski and Anacona appear to have been dropped, too, from the lead group, Mendes too. Fraile is no longer with the leading group of around eight riders...

Bob Jungels, the white jersey, and Tibaut Pinot have come to the front alongside the Trek riders. Sunweb have dropped back, including the maglia rosa, who is now quite a bit back in the main pack. Is Dumoulin bluffing or is this the day his race starts to unravel? He has no more team-mates now after Geschke dropped back. Just ten Dam out ahead in the break.

That's it - Kiryienka has finally hit the wall after his infernal pace-setting duties for his Sky team-mates Landa, Deignan and Henao, who are all in the break. Meanwhile, back with the main pack, it's now the Trek-Segafredo team of Bauke Mollema - sixth on GC at 4:32 - who are driving the pace.

Vincenzo Nibali has lost a key mountain domestique as Bahrain Merida's Kanstantsin Siutsou is dropped, alongside Matteo Montaguti of Ag2R-La Mondiale, from the main pack.

Vasil Kiryienka, with his Team Sky jersey open and flapping in the wind, still leads the break with Natnael Berhane of Dimension Data just behind. Numerous riders have popped and been dropped by the leading group. Back with the pack, which rides 2:40 behind, Sunweb have four men on the front, with Priedler, Geschke and Haga ahead of Dumoulin in pink, who has five Movistar riders behind (including Quintana). While Dumoulin has one rider in the break - Laurens ten Dam - Movistar have three: Jose Herrada, Andrey Amador and Gorka Izaguirre. In fact, the only Movistar rider not present either in the break or behind is Daniele Bennati, who did his job earlier in the day by forcing himself into the break before the Mortirolo.

A little reminder of what the Stelvio looks like for the uninitiated...

Groups have come over the line in drips and drabs - with the latest gruppetto being led over the line by a Cannondale rider who can't resist having a joke at Luka Pibernik's expense, around 10 minutes down on the peloton...

Right, it's show time. The riders are onto the Cat.1 Passo dello Stelvio (21.7km, 7.3% average, 12% maximum). Europe's second highest paved pass is the Cima Coppi of the race and it's been tackled by the south side - which means the riders will then negotiate the famous 48 hairpin bends down to Prato before the final climb of the day, which is back up the Stelvio via the lesser known third pass, the Umbrailpass. With Bormio lying at 1209m above sea level and the summit of the Stelvio at 2758m that means we have more than 1.5km of vertical gain ahead.

Five Sunweb riders - including the maglia rosa, Dumoulin - and Peter Stetina of Trek Segafredo lead the streamlined peloton through the finish 2:53 down on the leaders ahead of the double ascent. The first climb of the Stelvio will be the Cima Coppi of this year's race being the highest mountain pass.

The break is led over the finish line ahead of this terrible extra loop, which includes a double ascent of the Stelvio. It's that man Kiryienka who leads them over the line - not Luka Pibernek thinking he's already won. The gap is up to 2:50 for these escapees - and there's no bell ringing; that would be cruel, given what's to come.

Kiryienka still drives this break of 26 riders, whose lead is up to 2:02 on the approach to Bormio, where the stage will finish - but in another 100km time after the most brutal of out-and-back loops. We're hearing that Carlos Verona of Quick-Step Floors is also in this break - which makes sense, because previously we gave a list of 25 riders.