Hello and welcome along to our live coverage of stage 15 of the Giro d’Italia. Today’s route takes the riders 199km from Valdengo to Bergamo in the foothills of the Alps. After a flat first 150km, the peloton will tackle two back-to-back categorised climbs and then a short and sharp uncategorised climb just before the finish. It should be an exciting finale, with the potential for time gaps – albeit small ones – between the overall contenders.

The breakaway has already split in two on the lower slopes of the climb. Fernando Gaviria (Quick-Step Floors) and Philip Deignan (Team Sky) are among the five in the front group.

The riders are now about to start up the first of the day's two categorised climbs, the category-two Miragolo San Salvatore. It is 9.8km long and has a maximum gradient of 11 per cent, although the average grdient is a gentler seven per cent.

This breakaway is looking increasingly doomed because ORICA-SCOTT have now cut the gap down to 56 seconds.

Wow. ORICA-SCOTT have strung out the peloton so much that we're now seeing splits towards the back. The breakaway's gap is now down to 1'31".

The gap continues to fall and now stands at 1'48". Caleb Ewan, ORICA-SCOTT's sprinter, is currently setting the pace on the front of the peloton and has it strung out in a long line. Eurosport summariser and reigning British national champion Adam Blythe remains convinced the break will stay away to the finish, though.

The breakaway's lead had earlier reached two and a half minutes, but it's now back down at 2'06" and it's still ORICA-SCOTT who are chipping away at it on the front of the peloton. They definitely look like they want to bring the escape back.

Here are the breakaway riders, being driven on by Fernando Gaviria:

Bizarrely, the team setting the pace on the front of the peloton is not race leader Tom Dumoulin's Team Sunweb, but ORICA-SCOTT. They're not in the breakaway, so maybe the Australian team want to bring it back after all. Adam Yates would be their best bet for a stage win on today's finish. The gap is now 2'28".

The breakaway's lead is now up to 1'56" and Adam Blythe, who is currently summarising alongside Rob Hatch in the Eurosport commentary box, thinks this group of 10 will stay away all the way to the finish.

The riders in the new breakaway are: Enrico Battaglin (LottoNL-Jumbo), Enrico Barbin (Bardiani-CSF), Rudy Molard (FDJ.fr), Fernando Gaviria (Quick-Step Floors), Silvan Dilier (BMC Racing), Evgeny Shalunov (Gazprom-RusVelo), Simone Petilli (UAE Team Emirates), Philip Deignan (Team Sky), Jacques Janse van Rensburg (Dimension Data) and Julen Amezqueta (Wilier Triestina-Selle Italia). Their lead is now 47 seconds and continues to grow. The pace in the peloton has been knocked off.

A new 10-man breakaway has formed and has opened up a lead of 28 seconds. Let's see if the peloton lets it go. Things look calm-ish in the bunch, so there's a good chance it will.

All of the five initial breakaway riders have now been caught, so we're getting fresh attacks out of the peloton as riders try to form a new breakaway. The pace is still through the roof and the average speed after 107km of racing is now a whopping 52.1kmh.

To give you an idea of how today's stage finish might play out, the final kilometres are the same as last year's Il Lombardia. That day Esteban Chaves (ORICA-SCOTT) sprinted to victory ahead of Diego Rosa (then Astana) and Rigoberto Uran (Cannondale-Drapac). Romain Bardet (Ag2r-La Mondiale) finished six seconds later in fourth, but it was 1'19" before fifth-placed Davide Villella (Cannondale-Drapac) crossed the line. It shows that gaps are not only possible today, but they could also be substantial.

This is getting a bit ridiculous now. The pace in the peloton is still sky high as teams try to add riders to the breakaway, but all the attacks are being chased down. The relentless speed has cut the leading five's gap to 10 seconds, and as I write, Devenyns has cearly had enough and so has just attacked to move into a solo lead.

The breakaway quintet continue to dangle just 31 seconds in front of the peloton. The chase back in the bunch has led to a lightning-fast pace today and at this rate, they're going to be finishing well ahead of schedule.

With a definite escape group still to form, Brian Smith and Adam Blythe discuss Team Sky's chances of breakaway win today:

The breakaway quintet are still up the road, but their lead remains at just 14 seconds. We're seeing some fresh attacks out of the peloton, but no one has been allowed to go clear as yet. Today has potential for a breakaway winner, so forming the escape was always going to be a complicated affair.

The riders have just gone through the day's first intermediate sprint, with Zhupa leading fellow escapees Barta and Hofland over the line for maximum points.

Here's The Coach, Brian Smith, giving his thoughts on today's stage:

Live coverage is just starting over on Eurosport 1 and we've currently got the breakaway on screen, but their gap is down to just 11 seconds and it looks like they're going to be caught.