Buongiorno e benvenuto to live coverage of the 101st edition of the Giro d'Italia which kicks off in Jerusalem with a 9.7km individual time trial ahead of two road stages around Israel over the weekend. It's an unprecedented and controversial grande partenza - the first time a Grand Tour has started outside Europe - but there we go, that's cycling.

And another big name rider - Miguel Angel Lopez of Astana - also took a spill but the Colombian was able to get back on his bike. So, it's all happening. Incidentally, it's Lopez's Astana team-mate Tanel Kangert who is the current leader today, the Estonian setting a time of 12:45 - two seconds quicker than Jurgen Roelandts of BMC.

Actually, it could have been worse: ask Froome's former team-mate KIanstantin Siutsou, who also hit the deck in training today and broke a bone in his back. The Bahrain Merida rider has been forced to withdraw before his race even got started.

More footage of that earlier training crash for Froome, who looked in serious discomfort afterwards as he hobbled around trying to walk off the shock. The worst possible start for the four-time Tour de France champion, who returns to the Giro for the first time since 2010.

Confirmation of how tricky this course is courtesy of Dimension Data's Ben King, who warns about the tight corners and ghost holes...

More details of today's course profile - and as you can see, it's far from pizza-flat. Expect the likes of Rohan Dennis, Josh van Emden, Victor Campanaerts and defending champion Tom Dumoulin to be among the favourites today. I would say Froome, but after that crash in training it may be a case of damage-limitation for the Sky rider.

The riders are currently rolling down the start ramp at one-minute intervals with the likes of Danny van Poppel, Richard Carapaz and Darwin Atapuma all on the course, which is quite technical and has some difficult corners in it.

Meanwhile, back to the race and we have our first target time as Sabatini crosses the line to complete the 9.7km course in 13'26".

Froome is, of course, one of the main favourites for the maglia rosa and that will be a huge blow to his ambitions to take the pink jersey. The 32-year-old is going for a grand slam of Grand Tour victories with the Giro adding to his current Tour and Vuelta titles. But there are many who don't think he should be here because of that adverse analytical finding for salbutamol during the Vuelta - a case which the anti-doping authorities are still trying to sort out.

The big news to bring you is that Chris Froome of Team Sky crashed badly this morning in training, losing a lot of skin while doing a reconnaissance of the course.

And the honour of getting this race started goes to Italian Fabio Sabatini of Quick-Step Floors, who rolls down the ramp in Jerusalem.