Hello and welcome to live coverage of what could be the key stage of this year's Giro d'Italia - it's stage 19, a mammoth 184km ride from Venaria Reale to Bardonecchia that includes the Cima Coppi - the Colle delle Finestre - a second 2,000+ metre climb to Sestriere and the final steep ascent of the Jafferau. If yesterday was tough, then this takes things to a whole new level...

With David de la Cruz dropping back, Kenny Elissonde really takes it up. The diminutive Frenchman puts in a huge dig to blow the leading pack apart. Dumoulin, Pinot, Reichenback and Carapaz hold on but Pozzovivo, Formolo, Bennett, Poels and the others have no answer. King Kenny!

The leaders are onto the gravel section of this climb now, with Yates over two minutes back.

Henao has been dropped now after all that pacing. Froome still has Elissonde and De la Cruz ahead and Poels just in his back wheel. They hold all the cards today - but Froome also needs to distance Pozzovivo and Dumoulin if he wants to win this Giro.

Yates is now two minutes down on the main pack, which is only about 20-strong and includes all the big guns - including Lopez, who has fought back, Dumoulin, Oomen, Pozzovivo, Pinot, Reichenback, Formolo, Konrad, Bennett, Carapaz, O'Conner, Sanchez and all those Sky riders.

Giulio Ciccone is also way back, so that opens the door for the maglia azzurra KOM competition. There are 50pts up for grabs going over this summit... so Yates may lose both the pink and blue today.

These struggles by Lopez have ended Sanchez's chances: the Spaniard has been told to ease up, which he does ostentatiously in front of the TV cameras while waiting for the pack.

Yates now has Jack Haig as well as Nieve with him in a small group that includes two Astana riders and Puccio... And Miguel Angel Lopez appears to be in difficulty! The white jersey is dropping back...

Meanwhile, Luis Leon Sanchez still holds a 25-second gap over the Sky-led pack. Salvatore Puccio has dropped back after all that pace-setting, but Froome still has De la Cruz, Henao, Poels, Knees and Elissonde. Yates is already a minute off the back!

Yates has Mitchelton-Scott team-mate Mikel Nieve with him but he also has Astana's Jan Hirt sandbagging him. The gap is already about 20 seconds - and there's a lot of this climb to go, and then another two ascents...

Simon Yates in difficulty! With Sky really hammering it down, the pink jersey has been distanced.

Still Sky set the tempo but the fireworks have yet been set off.

When the Giro last came on the Colle delle Finestre, Fabio Aru put race leader Alberto Contador under serious pressure... The Spaniard was dropped early on and then had a mechanical, forcing him to climb the Finestre alone in a bid to limit his losses. At the end of the stage, which finished in Sestriere, he came 2'25" down on Aru, who took the win and slashed Contador's lead to 2'02" in the overall standings. But that was enough for Contador to keep hold of the maglia rosa as the race ended the next day. Will Simon Yates be put under similar pressure today?

Many of the break have already been caught by the Sky-led pack, who have Puccio on the front (with his jersey unzipped) and ahead of De le Cruz, Henao, Poels, Elissonde and Froome.

Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana) has dropped his fellow escapees and soloes clear on this climb. Bold. Very bold.

Almost instantly Nat Brown ups the tempo in the break and forces a reaction from Atapuma. Back with the pack, who trail our leaders by one minute, it's the Team Sky army of Chris Froome - minus Vasil Kiryienka, who withdrew earlier today - who come to the front.

It's show time. We're onto the highest climb of this year's race, the Cat.1 Colle delle Finestre (18.5km at 9.2% and a maximum of 14%). It's the Cima Coppi of the 101st edition of the Giro and the final 9.5% are on gravel.

So, the danger men are the duo from UAE - Atapuma and Conti are both solid climbers - and that man Luis Leon Sanchez, who is always a danger. Both Bouwman and Montaguti have been solid in breakaways so far in this race, too. But the gap is only one minute - and you get the impression that there will be attacks from the GC riders on the Colle delle Finestre, which is still followed by two more brutal ascents. So surely this move is going nowhere.

Right, so we have nine riders now in this new break: Matteo Montaguti (Ag2R-La Mondiale), Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana), Nathan Brown (EF Education First-Drapac), Rodolfo Torres (Androni Giocattoli), Krists Neilands (Israel Cycling Academy), Koen Bouwman and Danny van Poppel (LottoNL-Jumbo), Darwin Atapuma and Valerio Conti (UAE Team Emirates).