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...

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.

It's sunny today in the Alps but the temperature at the top of the Stelvio - which is still covered in snow - is just 5 degrees Celsius. That will take its toll on the riders - especially when they go down.

Vasil Kiryienka is riding a hard tempo on this false flat in the valley - the Belarusian is clearly Team Sky's expendable man in this break. Once he pops he will have hoped to have reduced the leading group considerably. The plan will be then for Landa to use both Henao and Deignan as climbing domestiques before riding to victory. Well, at least that looks to be the plan. Although Movistar with have other ideas: their plan will be for Quintana at some point to bridge over to this leading group and relay with Amador, Herrada and Izaguirre...

A reminder that Luis Leon Sanchez crested the summit of the Passo del Mortirolo to pick up the Cipo Scarponi in memory of his late Astana team-mate, Michele Scarponi.

Many riders from the break have taken on musettes at the small town of Le Prese. They're not at the official feed zone - which is just ahead of Bormio - but it will be important to keep refuelling today. The road gradually climbs uphill to Bormio ahead of a slight drop before the first of two ascents of the Stelvio.

Tom Dumoulin, the maglia rosa, has Preidler, Haga and Geschke with him in this reduced peloton, which trails the leaders by 1:55. We're hearing of a third withdrawal of the day: after Elissonde and Hermans, we have Sean de Bie of Lotto Soudal who has thrown in the towel.

So, there are some dangermen in this break who could jump up the overall standings if this group stays out: both Amador and Kruijswijk are in the top ten at 6:01 and 7:03 from the summit respectively. There are also some very tidy climbers in the shape of Landa, Sanchez, Anton, Fraile, Rolland, Dombrowski, Woods, Foliforov...

So, here's the updated list of leaders: Jose Herrada, Andrey Amador and Gorka Izaguirre (Movistar), Laurens ten Dam (Team Sunweb), Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo), Mikel Landa, Sebastian Henao, Vasil Kiryienka and Philip Deignan (Team Sky), Luis Leon Sanchez and Pello Bilbao (Astana), Omar Fraile, Natnael Berhane and Igor Anton (Dimension Data), Pierre Rolland, Joe Dombrowski and Michael Woods (Cannondale-Drapac), Rui Costa and Edward Ravisi (UAE Team Emirates), Laurens de Plus (Quick-Step Floors), Jose Mendes (Bora-Hansgrohe), Manuel Senni (BMC), Alexander Foliforov (Gazprom-Rusvelo), Jan Hirt and Felix Grosschartner (CCC Sprandi Polkowice).

Another withdrawal to report on is Ben Hermans of BMC, who fell sick on the rest day. That's a blow for the Belgian, who was sitting in 15th place on GC at 10:51 behind Dumoulin. Following Rohan Dennis' withdrawal in the opening week, and Tejay Van Garderen's imposion, Hermans was BMC man for the GC.

Team Sky don't only have Landa in this break, they also boast Philip Deignan, Sebastian Henao and Vasil Kiryienka. But there's no place on the race anymore for Kenny Elissonde, the Frenchman, who joined Geraint Thomas by withdrawing from this 100th edition of the Giro. He crashed badly on stage 15 and has been suffering accordingly.

The peloton - led by Dumoulin's Sunweb team - went over the summit around 1:40 down on the leaders. Gorka Izaguirre, who won a stage in the second week of the race, is also in that break for Movistar alongside team-mates Herrada and Amador, so that's quite a coup for Quintana.

Here's the moment as Sanchez took maximum points over the top ahead of a sporting Fraile and Landa.

Lovely scenes at the to of the Passo del Mortirolo as Omar Fraile lets Luis Leon Sanchez take maximum points over the top. Now, he didn't need to do that because those KOM points could have been very important to Fraile in his quest to win the maglia azzurra, but his sense of decency and fair-play shone bright - and he pats his compatriot on the back after Sanchez remembered the memory of Scarponi. A nice touch, there.

It's hard to tell at the moment who exactly is in this leading group because many of the original escapees were swept up and many others went clear with Sanchez and Fraile at the start of the climb. We're hearing that Movistar have both Andre Amador and Jose Herrada in this break - if true, that would be a coup for Quintana, for they are strong climbers. We're nearing the summit now. Mikel Landa of Team Sky is also in this group.

Luis Leon Sanchez's motivation is clear: this climb has been branded the Cipo Scarponi - the Scarponi prize - this year in memory of the late Michele Scarponi, Sanchez's Astana team-mate who was tragically killed in a training accident two weeks before the race. Scarponi attacked on the Mortirolo in the 2010 Giro d'Italia en route to winning at Aprica, so it's a fitting tribute - and what better way for Sanchez to remember his friend by cresting the summit in pole position before winning the queen stage of the race...

Tom Dumoulin, the maglia rosa, has two Sunweb team-mates - Preidler and Geschke - on the front of the peloton with him, ahead of three Movistar riders (including Quintana).

The break - which has shed some riders - is only 1:18 ahead of the pack, and has been joined by some fresh faces, most notably Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana) and Omar Fraile (Dimension Data). Fraile's motivation is clear: he wants as many KOM points as possible so he can move back into the lead in the maglia azzurra standings.

A reminder that we're on the Passo del Mortirolo (Cat.1, 12.6km, 7.7% average, 16% maximim). It's worth adding that they're not climbing the harder side - that's reserved for the descent - but this is still a brutal slog for the riders, especially ahead of two ascents of the Stelvio.

Interestingly, Dumoulin and Quintana both have two team-mates in the break... one of Quintana's Movistar men, Bennati, won the intermediate sprint at Malonna ahead of the climb. That man Anacona will be a very useful relay later on for the Colombian.

The names of the 27 riders in the break are Quentin Jauregui (Ag2R-La Mondiale), Pello Bilbao and Zhandros Bizhigitov (Astana), Manuel Senni (BMC), Joe Dombrowski and Davide Villella (Cannondale-Drapac), Felix Grosscharnter and Branislau Samoilau (CCC Sprandi Polkowice), Matthieu Ladagnaous (FDJ), Jasper De Buyst (Lotto Soudal), Winner Anacona and Daniele Bennati (Movistar), Laurens De Plus and Pieter Serry (Quick-Step Floors), Nathnael Berhane (Dimension Data), Maxim Belkov and Alberto Losada (Katusha-Alpecin), Jurgen van den Broeck (LottoNL-Jumbo), Vasil Kiryienka (Team Sky), Phil Bauhaus and Chad Haga (Team Sunweb), Mads Pedersen and Jasper Stuyven (Trek Segafredo), Marco Marcato and Matej Mohoric (UAE Team Emirates).

The pace was very high over the first hour of racing with 50km covered ahead of the climb. That tempo will surely take its toll once the riders start going uphill...