Buongiorno and welcome to live coverage of stage 9 of the Giro d'Italia - an Apennine mountain-top showdown on the Gran Sasso d'Italia in a long 225km stage from Pesco Sannita.

Well, well, well... the day belonged to this man. Chapeau, Simon Yates!

So, Yates extends his lead in the overall standings with Chaves leap-frogging Dumoulin into second place and Froome dropping out of the top 10 on a dramatic day on Gran Sasso d'Italia.

Here's how Simon Yates won the stage to extend his grip on the maglia rosa...

Confirmation of today's stage result - and what a victory for Simon Yates, who is riding this Giro like a boss.

Chris Froome was almost caught by Fabio Aru by the time he crossed the line just over a minute in arrears. Even Wout Poels had given up on him by the end...

That will be 10 bonus seconds for Yates plus the 12 seconds that Tom Dumoulin conceded over the line... so Yates will have 38 seconds over the Dutchman on GC, with Chaves moving into second place.

No one could keep up with the pink jersey after his decisive dig with Pinot in second and Chaves third.

Victory for Simon Yates of Mitchelton-Scott!

Pozzovivo leads Pinot, Yates, Chaves and Carapaz into the home straight... one of these five will win...

Now Pozzovivo has a dig. Ciccone has blown. Pinot, Yates and Chaves are thre while Carapaz drops back a little...

Once again Ciccone attacks and takes Pinot with him. The others soon follow.

Ciconne attacks again! He's reeled in again... Woods, Carapaz and Bannett are also here, and Formolo.

Yates couldn't reply to that attack but keeps calm and it comes back together. Dumoulin, Bennett and Chaves are all there, too.

Pinot takes it up on the front with Pozzovivo behind. And now Lopez attacks!

Ciccone has been caught... and Haig peels off after his huge pull.

Froome is being distanced! He's with Betancur and radios for assistance. Henao drops back to pick him up...

Chris Froome is starting to crack. The rangy Briton is on the back of this main group...

Ciccone is not making much headway here - the gap is only 20m and he looks to be struggling.

Just as one Italian youngster is caught, another pings off the front: Fauto Masnada's time ahead comes to an end and Giulio Ciccone attacks for Bardiani-CSF.

Masnada's lead is down to just 15 seconds with 3km remaining. Aru and Meintjes are in a second group a few seconds behind the big guns...