Buongiorno and welcome to live coverage of stage 1 - sorry, stage 4 - of the Giro d'Italia. After three days in Israel and one day flying the circus back into Europe, the 101st edition of La Corsa Rosa hits Italian soil with the first of three stages on the island of Sicily.

Could the feedzone save some of the riders? It remains to be seen if UAE push on through as the musettes are being dished out. One chasing group has rejoined the pack but there are still many riders off the back - and some will be very hungry if they miss out on their feed. Meanwhile, in the press buffet it's a whole different affair...

CRASH: Tony Martin appears to have taken a tumble on a skiddy corner. The German needs a new bike and will have to join one of the chasing gruppettos in a bid to rejoin the main pack, who are being driven along by UAE Team Emirates at a ferocious pace. The gap of the five leaders comes down to just one minute accordingly.

The peloton has blown apart thanks to that acceleration from UAE Team Emirates - and because many of these uncategorised climbs are followed by fast descents, it could be hard for them to get back on. Dayer Quintana (Movistar) can't keep up with the diminished main pack and has been shelled out the back. Carnage on the road.

With the road now kicking up again, the UAE Team Emirates team-mates of Fabio Aru and Diego Ulissi have come to the front of the pack to ramp up the tempo ahead of the feed zone.

The gap has stretched up to 3'40" for the five escapees on this twisting and achingly beautiful descent.

The peloton crests the summit 2'55" down on the five escapees who are: Quentin Jauregui (Ag2R-La Mondiale), Marco Frapporti (Androni-Sidermec), Enrico Barbin (Bardiani-CSF), Maxim Belkov (Katusha-Alpecin) and Jacopo Mosca (Wilier-Triestina).

The road drops down ahead of the final rise to the summit. Frapporti is on the front but Barbin is making his way up - and the Italian jumps clear to take the maximum 3pts with ease. Frapporti has to settle for 2pts in second ahead of Mosca, I think. So Barbin's blue jersey haul is now 8pts with Frapporti onto 5pts - so it looks like the Bardiani-CSF rider will keep hold of the maglia azzurra for another day.

Rear wheel puncture for Chris Froome who needs assistance from his Sky team car. The pace isn't too high and he'll be able to return to the peloton before the summit for sure.

Just 2km from the summit now and Frapporti has moved onto the front and looks like he may make his move soon. He won yesterday's solitary climb to move onto 3pts in the KOM standings - two behind leader Barbin.

We're well onto the Cat.4 climb to Pietre Calde now as the gap comes down to 2'35" for the five escapees. Expect some movement soon as the leaders duke it out for KOM points - in particular those men Barbin and Frapporti.

Mechanical for Valerio Conti of UAE Team Emirates who needs a bike change. The Italian came close to competing for a stage win last year but a crash on an uphill bend in stage 8 ended his hopes and opened the door to Gorka Izagirre who went on to win in Peschici. You can watch it here below...

BMC still front the peloton although they're getting help from a lone Lotto-Fix All rider. It's Sander Armee, who a couple of days ago could barely see because of a reaction to a wasp sting near his right eye...

Other possible contenders for today's stage include the in-form Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana) and Italian youngster Davide Formolo (Bora-Hansgrohe). It's probably too punchy for Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) but perhaps Carlos Betancur or Richard Carapaz - both Movistar - will have a pop. Some have mentioned Michael Woods (EF-Education First) and Fabio Aru (UAE Team Emirates) along with the big favourites - the likes of Wellens, Visconti, Lutsenko and Yates. A few years ago, you'd think Diego Ulissi (UAE Team Emirates) would be in with a shout as well.

How good is this Movistar soigneur?? That's fast!

We spoke to Wout Poels of Team Sky ahead of the stage - and did we detect a little bitterness in the Dutchman's assessment of his role? "Today's a really important day just to stay on the front, with the last few kilometres so tricky. And we're also looking forward to Etna, of course. Normally a finish like this today would suit me really well but we have Chris and I have to support him. But if you're on the front, you never know what might happen. But the main goal is to support Chris and help keep him near the front." Poels lost 30-odd seconds the other day because of a puncture and is currently 1'31" down on GC. Meanwhile, Froome is 38" down after his stuttering start in the opening time trial.

So far the riders have covered 65km since the start of today's stage at an average speed of 41.2km - pretty impressive bearing in mind the hilly nature of the parcours. The peloton are on a small hairpinned descent which runs into a forested valley with a stream on one side and some cliffs on the other. Nice. Thje gap is 3'15" so staying stable.

The riders are negotiating a meadowed plateau ahead of a slight downhill zip to the foot of the next uphill rise. The road is gradually climbing ahead of the Cat.4 ascent to Pietre Calde. It's quite rural and scenic - very under-developed apart from the dry-stone walls separating the fields and the odd barn. The gap is still above the three-minute mark.

We're doing a daily highlights and analysis programme with our friends at GCN. You can watch the dissection of Sunday's stage 3 and preview to today's stage here below.

Impressive crowds here in Sicily today as spectators line the streets to watch the riders edge through another town. The five escapees - three Italians, one Russian and one Frenchman - have 3'05" over the peloton, which is being led by the BMC team-mates of race leader Rohan Dennis.