Buongiorno and welcome to live coverage of stage 10 of the Giro d'Italia - the longest of the race, a huge 244km schlep from Penne to Gualdo Tadino.

It's sunny but a lot of jackets and gilets are coming on so perhaps there's rain ahead - and yes, the clouds on the horizon seem to confirm that... Frapporti is approaching the final 14km climb (which has an average gradient of only 2%) with a gap of 2'42" so it has stayed fairly stable. (* on the pic below, it's not a blockage - just the angle of the image... that's a side road!)

It seems that the only big-name sprinter to make it into the main pack is Sam Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe) so we can expect a flurry of opportunistic attacks from riders and teams trying to upset the apple cart - otherwise it will be a procession for the Irishman.

LottoNL-Jumbo and EF-Education First have sent a rider each onto the front of the main pack, with Yates just behind and ahead of the Sky train. There's no huge concern about Frapporti yet and the Italian still has 2'40" to play with. Meanwhile, Chaves looks thoroughly fed up as he rides back with the gruppetto 9'55" down on our lone leader.

Frapporti has 2'25" over the pack and 8'58" over the Chaves gruppetto.

The road gradually rises now all the way to the top of the Cat.4 climb to Annifo, which won't start properly for about 25km. It's still Groupama-FDJ, Sky and Sunweb on the front now, but the remaining Mitchelton-Scott riders - those not lumpered with Chaves - have come forward to make their presence known around the pink jersey of Yates. It's Svein Tuft, Mikel Nieve and Jack Haig.

More than two minutes now for our lone leader Marco Frapporti. The Chaves-Viviani-Mientjes group is a huge 8'22" in arrears.

Frapporti, the veteran 33-year-old Italian who has never finished higher than 13th place in 93 stages across four Giri and counting, is such a throwback: no gloves, no sunglasses, just kick-ass why-the-hell-not attitude.

Frapporti has over a minute now with the Chaves group almost seven minutes down. Frapporti, incidentally, is leading the breakaway standings for having covered the most amount of kilometres in front so far in this Giro. At least, he will be after today: he was 20km down at the start.

Mitchelton-Scott have called off the chase and the gap grows to six minutes. Brian Smith has seen the silver lining, however. "You don't want to lose your second place rider but maybe it's a blessing in disguise for Mitchelton-Scott because they can go all in for Simon Yates and the pink jersey now."

Here's the one bit of good news coming from today's stage for Mitchelton-Scott - Yates winning the intermediate sprint and picking up bonus seconds.

Marco Frapporti (Androni-Giocattoli) took advantage of a lull after the intermediate sprint to go on the attack. He has 25 seconds over the main pack as he looks to give his team some extra TV time. The stage needed that.

So, things may be bleak for Mitchelton-Scott with regards to Chaves but not so for Yates, who has extended his lead over Pinot by one second and Tom Dumoulin and the others by three seconds. For his part, Pinot has stolen two seconds on Dumoulin et al. As things are, Yates leads Dumoulin by 41 seconds on GC and Pinot by 46 seconds. Chaves, who was 32 seconds down in second place, will be 5+ minutes and 32 seconds down at this rate.

The intermediate sprint at Sarnano is slightly uphill and it's drawn out a move from Thibaut Pinot and a reaction from Simon Yates. The GC riders will be aware of the bonus seconds up for grabs and so the focus has shifted from ciclamino to rosa when it comes to jerseys and sprints. And it's Simon Yates, like a boss, who zips clear of Pinot to take maximum points but more importantly the three bonus seconds over the line.

One thing we don't know is where Sam Bennett of Bora-Hansgrohe is. If the Irishman is in the main pack then his prospects of a second stage win - in Viviani's absence - will be high. We haven't spotted him in either pack, which suggests he's in the main one but towards the back. We may find out soon with the intermediate sprint...

It's harsh to say and terrible to see, but Chaves is going to have to fall on his sword and become a sacrificial lamb today. Mitchelton-Scott have bigger fish to fry than preserve his second-place on GC and there are big days ahead for Simon Yates, the pink jersey. The gap has grown one minute since Quick-Step eased up - and Mitchelton-Scott can't afford to bury Bewley, Juul-Jensen and Kreuziger because they'll be needed in the stages to come.

We're onto a short but steep lump ahead of the intermediate sprint. We're hearing that Chaves' problem today is a sore throat. He's now on the front of the chase group with team-mates Bewley and Juul-Jensen but the gap is 3'15".

It's become a nightmare for Esteban Chaves. Quick-Step have decided they're fighting a lost cause for Viviani and so give up the chase. Chaves will now have to do it on his own. He realises his plight and comes forward, nodding to his knackered Mitchelton-Scott team-mates in a bid to reassure them, then comes to the front for a pull. The gap is 2'30" now and could be more than five minutes before the finish.

Christian Knees, who did some hefty pace-setting for Sky earlier on when Chaves was first dropped, has sat up and been caught by the chasing group - so hunter meets the hunted. The gap continues to grow - it's 2.2km and 2'15" now that separates the two main packs.

The road surface is pretty terrible in this neck of the Marche woods. The rain has stopped - for now - and the pack is all snaked out on these rolling roads. The gap is back to two minutes now as five Quick-Step riders come to the front of the gruppetto to help reduce the arrears for Elia Viviani.

Brian Smith shares his thoughts on Esteban Chaves' predicament today...