Hello and welcome to another quiet day on the Giro d'Italia. Given the monotonous tedium of this oh-so-boring 101st edition of La Corsa Rosa, not much will happen in this 214km Stage 20 from Susa to Cervinia, which features the final three big climbs of the race and will decide once and for all the outcome of the maglia rosa.

Chris Froome may be in pink but it's been a rocky road to get there - via two crashes, a win on the Zoncolan and many salbutamol-related jibes.

Now Kreuziger comes to the front of this break to drive the pace. Their gap is down to 4'40" with the peloton now starting the climb. Around 10 riders have been shelled out of the break already.

German veteran Tony Martin comes to the front of the break on the climb and already numerous riders have been dropped from this break - including Viviani, his work for the day done.

We're onto the first climb, the Cat.1 Col Tsecore (15.5km at 7.6% and a maximum gradient of 15%) which is being used for the first time in the Giro.

It's Groundhog Day as Elia Viviani pips two Androni Giocattoli - Ballerini and Frapporti- riders to pick up anther 8pts in the intermediate sprint at Verres to extend his lead to 72pts over Sam Bennett in the maglia ciclamino standings.

We're fast approaching the second intermediate sprint, which comes right at the foot of the first climb.

Bit of a tailwind now in the valley - and now that two teams are combining in the chase, the chances of this break going the distance looks more and more remote.

Astana and Movistar have men on the front, as do the Sky team of the pink jersey. The gap comes down to under five minutes for our large 27-man group, which is being driven along by LottoNL-Jumbo and Bardiani-CSF who have five riders together in this move.

On Froome's performance yesterday - and the question marks over whether he should be here in the first place, what with his on-going salbutamol case hanging over him (and the sport) - Sean Kelly said ahead of the stage today: "Within the sport of cycling we have that problem of coming from an era with the doping problem – and anyone who does a big ride like Chris Froome did yesterday, they’re going to refer to that. But let’s not forget that Chris Froome legally has the right to be here. Until proven otherwise, I don’t think we can say he shouldn’t be here. In big champions, no matter what the event is, when you win a lot of events, you have people who support them, and others who hate them. That’s the way it’s always been and that’s how it will always be."

Shortly after the sprint, the break zips through the feed zone with a gap of five minutes over the peloton with the average speed for the second hour of racing 47.3kmph.

Back to the race and no surprise there as Elia Vivani takes the maximum eight points at the intermediate sprint at Samone ahead of Androni duo Davide Ballerini and Marco Frapporti. So, that increases the Italian's lead over Sam Bennett to 66 points in the battle for the maglia ciclamino.

So, in a nutshell, Bennett is trying to distance himself from those who think there's something fishy about Froome's performance, effectively saying that miracles can happen - although this was the biggest miracle since Christ rose from the dead. Again, read into that what you will.

We mentioned earlier George Bennett's stunned reaction to Froome's win yesterday, in which he said the Sky rider had "done a Landis". Well, the New Zealander clarified his comments before today's stage: "I wasn’t saying he was riding on a load of gear. I was just saying – that was the last comeback, and if we can’t compare one cyclist to another cyclist then we can’t make any comparisons from the last 20 years, otherwise that means you’re like, just drawing… I didn’t say Froomey went out and rode on a bunch of gear and won the stage. I’m just saying he made a bigger comeback than bloody Easter Sunday. And I think that, I’m not saying at all, I mean, there’s no innuendo, I’m not inferring anything. But if we can’t make comparisons to cycling then we can’t compare to Pantani, to Merckx, because we don’t know what was going on there. It’s nothing to do with drugs or anything like that. But it’s like a self-fulfilling prophecy – people on Twitter, they want it to mean what they want it to mean, that I’m in there batting for them. But I’m just raising a point. It’s ridiculous!"

Astana have come to the front of the pack to lead the chase. They don't have any riders in the break and will be aiming to set up Miguel Angel Lopez for the win today - perhaps even propel him into the final spot on the podium at the expence of Thibaut Pinot, who he trails by 40 seconds. Meanwhile, the break is approaching the intermediate sprint with a gap of four minutes.

Mitchelton-Scott directeur sportif Matt White waxed lyrical about Chris Froome's ride yesterday, claiming: "I don't think I've seen a performance like that in Grand Tour ever - it was an incredible ride and it will go down in history." Meanwhile, Team Sky manager Dave Brailsford called Froome’s ride “the best performance of his career” as well as one of the best days in the team’s history.

We'll be getting live TV images soon, which make things a lot more interesting. Thankfully, it's been a quiet day so far, with the 27-man break forming after a fast opening 15km or so before stretching its lead out to four minutes ahead of the intermediate sprints and the three climbs. All the action is really yet to happen.

More than four minutes now for the escapees as they approach a little hill ahead of the drop down to the intermediate sprint - where Viviani should pick up the points but will face some opposition from the Androni quartet, who have targeted the sprint competition this year.

Lone chaser Natnael Berhane has called it quits - quite wisely, given he was making no in-roads. So just the large 27-man break out ahead now ahead of the two intermediate sprints and then those three all-important climbs. The gap is 3'50" and so there's no guarantees that today's winner will come from this group - although there are some solid climbers present in the likes of Visconti, Ciccone, Kreuziger, Nieve, Woods, Brambilla and Conti.

You'll be pleased to know that Chris Froome hasn't done a Rohan Dennis / Nairo Quintana and gone full-pink when it comes to his bike. Instead, Sky have made just a few pink additions to his steed. They know that this race is not yet over.

The two rivals for pink caught in the same elevator this morning... now that's awkward.

Berhane still rides in pursuit but the Eritrean is 2'20" down with the peloton a further 1'10" back.