Hello and welcome to live coverage of stage 3 of the Giro d'Italia - a long 229km schlep through the Israeli desert from Be'er Sheva to the Red Sea resort of Eilat. It's going to be hot, dusty and (dare we say it?) a little dull... until the dig-dong bunch sprint we'll probably witness at the end.

On Dennis, it's worth adding that his canny move to snatch the maglia rosa was a great bit of racing yesterday - and saw the 27-year-old enter the history books. Dennis becomes only the fourth active rider to wear the leader’s jersey of each of cycling’s Grand Tours – after Britain’s Mark Cavendish and Italians Fabio Aru and Vincenzo Nibali – and the 23rd rider in history to have led the Giro, Tour de France and La Vuelta at some stage in their career. A big achievement.

The gap has stabilised at around 5'30" as BMC marshal things on the front of the pack.

On Dennis and his prospects, this tweet is bang on the money - in my humble opinion.

You'd think Rohan Dennis had won the Giro already judging by how OTT his BMC team have been. If yesterday was a lot of effort simply to win a two-second time bonus and put their rider in pink, it was understandable given the team's desire to commemorate their late boss Andy Rihs, who passed away last month. But giving the Australian a full pink paint job so early in the Giro suggests he's not going to be in for the long haul... (it's worth remembering that Dennis has only finished two of his previous six Grand Tours.)

Colombian national champion Sergio Henao picks up a puncture and needs a rear wheel change. With the peloton trundling on so slowly, this won't be a concern. Not like it was yesterday for Sky team-mate Wout Poels, who punctured with 6km remaining and came home 40 seconds down - an early blow for the rider who could be Sky's Plan B should something happen to Chris Froome.

The lead balloons to seven minutes for the three escapees as Rohan Dennis's BMC and Fabio Aru's UAE Team Emirates come to the front of the peloton to start upping the tempo a little. They don't want this gap to get ridiculous even if the men ahead - Boivin, Frapporti and Barbin - are no real threat.

A reminder of the classification jerseys out there today...

Here's the moment today's escapees made their move - right after the starting flag was waved. No one else seemed to keen to join them, to be fair.

Experienced veteran Frapporti is riding his fifth Giro but his first since 2015, when Androni were last selected as a wildcard. He's never won a stage in his home race, has indeed never finished higher than 13th on a stage. Could today see that change?

The gap is already up to four minutes for the three escapees - no surprise given the sluggishness of the peloton behind. Boivin attacked again yesterday after the race came back together following the climb - and stayed out until 16km remaining. The Canadian is doing his best to be the most combative rider in the country of his team, the Israeli Cycling Academy.

There's no response whatsoever from the peloton, which continues to soft-pedal along at a snail's pace. Canada's Boivin was in the break yesterday but was pipped by Barbin on the climb and denied the blue jersey. It looks like the two are going to resume their KOM battle today on the only categorised climb, which comes after 127km of racing.

ATTACK: From the outset three riders zip clear of the pack. It's that man Guillaume Boivin of the Israeli Cycling Academy again, as well as the blue jersey Enrico Barbin (Bardiani-CSF) and his fellow Italian Marco Frapporti (Androni-Sidermec).

It's quite an early start today because of the length of the stage - and after a brief neutralised zone, the 175 riders get this stage under way.

Yesterday, Elia Viviani made a late surge from deep in the pack to win Stage 2 in Tel Aviv as a canny Rohan Dennis wrested the maglia rosa off Tom Dumoulin thanks to a time bonus at the second intermediate sprint. In a chaotic conclusion to the 167km stage in Israel, Italy’s Viviani (Quick-Step Floors) darted onto the wheel of compatriot Jakub Mareczko (Wilier-Triestina) before rounding the pint-sized sprinter to win by a bike length. Australian Dennis (BMC) made up for his disappointment in losing Friday’s opening time trial by two slender seconds to Team Sunweb’s Dumoulin by winning the second intermediate sprint and moving one second clear of the Dutchman in the general classification.

Here's what's on the agenda today - some rolling roads and one categorised climb to spice things up.