Hello and welcome to live coverage of stage 17 of the Giro d'Italia - a short but potentially sharp 155km ride from Riva del Garda to Iseo that could favour a breakaway, a bunch sprint or even a GC ambush. Stay tuned for all the action...

We have a dozen riders with a small gap now - including two from Astana and one Sky rider, possibly Salvatore Puccio. Luis Leon Sanchez and Davide Villella are the Astana riders, while Hugh Carthy is there for EF, Ciccone too. But there's a lot of agitation behind and this move may not stick.

Astana and EF Education First-Drapac are leading the chase on the front of the pack, while numerous riders have already been dropped from the peloton. It's a tricky start to this stage, that's for sure.

Latvia's Krists Neilands (Israel Cycling Academy) is trying to break away on the climb. He's being chased down by a couple of Androni Giocattoli riders, the blue jersey of Giulio Cicconi (Bardiani-CSF) and a few others.

We had no images for a while - meaning a constant stream of aerial views over Lake Garda - but we're about to join the race on that opening climb, now that the riders have emerged from the tunnels that were disrupting the TV images. There's also talk of a convenient mechanical from a Quick-Step rider, which enforced a convenient go-slow. Remember, they're after a fourth win for Elia Viviani today...

They're off! Or are they? It seems that there are some hold ups today...

Two withdrawals to report: Victor Campenaerts (Lotto-Fix All) and Louis Meintjes (Dimension Data) have called it a day. Belgium's Campenarts, the European time trial champion, disappointed in yesterday's ITT and leaves after a frustrating race, while little Louis, of South Africa, never really got going.

Here's what in store today - a tricky opening half kicks off with an uncategorised 10km climb right from the start. But will it all come back together in time for a sprint at the end?

Yesterday, Britain’s Simon Yates took a giant step towards winning a maiden Grand Tour after retaining the pink jersey on the Stage 16 time trial at the Giro, won by the Australian Rohan Dennis. BMC’s Dennis, the Australian time trial champion, took victory on a largely flat 34.2km course along the Adige valley of northern Italy in 40 minutes dead – 14 seconds quicker than Germany’s Tony Martin (Katusha-Alpecin) and 22 seconds faster that Dutchman Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb). But a gutsy ride from the race leader Yates saw the 25-year-old Mitchelton-Scott rider limit his losses to just 75 seconds to chief rival Dumoulin – leaving him with a healthy lead of 56 seconds going into the final phase of the race.