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...

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).

Some more riders have managed to bridge over, including Luis Leon Sanchez and riders from LottoNL-Jumbo and, of course, Androni Giocattoli. The gap is just 20 odd seconds.

Conti and Brown manage to bridge over and we have a leading quartet after the other escapees are swept up by the pack.,

With the pack breathing down their necks, three riders zip clear from the break: Atapuma, Nielands and Montaguti.

The sprint is almost instantly followed by the feed zone and the gap is down to just 20 seconds so this may come back together before too long...

Stybar wins the intermediate sprint at Sant'Antonino di Susa ahead of Nielands, Masnada and Brown.

More riders have managed to bridge over to this break, which is 22-strong now. The late arrivals are: Fausto Masnada (Androni Giocattoli), Davide Villella (Astana), Giulio Ciccone (Bardiani-VSF), Zdenek Stybar (Quick-Step Floors), Joe Dombrowski and Nathan Brown (EF Education First-Drapac), Gianluca Brambilla and Jarlinson Pantano (Trek-Segafredo).

The peloton is all strung out and it only contains about 70 riders after splitting up on the long first climb, with a gruppetto including Elia Viviani (the maglia ciclamino) and many of the sprinters currently a few minutes back.

The gap is only 45 seconds as the break reaches the bottom of the descent and starts that 30km slightly uphill drag along the valley.

So, Team Sky have two riders in the break - that's big news. Henao and De la Cruz could prove critical for Froome later on. Dumoulin has Ten Dam, who is handy, while Pozzovivo has Visconti. As for Yates, he's going the defensive route and keeping his Mitchelton-Scott riders close.

It was Sanchez who took the points over the summit of the Colle del Lys ahead of Montaguti, with the attacks coming near the summit.

So, we have 14 riders in the break: Matteo Montaguti and Mickael Cherel (Ag2R-La Mondiale), Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana), Davide Formolo (Bora-Hansgrophe), Carlos Betancur and Antonio Pedrero (Movistar), Sergio Henao and David de la Cruz (Team Sky), Valerio Conti and Darwin Atapuma (UAE Team Emirates), Giovanni Visconti (Bahrain Merida), Krists Neilands (Israel Cycling Academy), Laurens ten Dam (Team Sunweb) and Jose Goncalves (Katusha-Alpecin).

So, here's what happened on that climb: Formolo attacked again and went with Carlos Betancur and Sergio Henao. Behind there were chaotic scenes as Wout Poels and Tom Dumoulin looked feisty and Esteban Chaves was marking moves. Valerio Conti and Luis Leon Sanchez joined the fun, as did David de la Cruz.

Over the top go the riders - and we're still waiting confirmation of who picked up the points. The live TV images have yet to start but we're hearing that a break has finally formed...

Before all the excitement of today's final three climbs why not watch our friends at GCN chewing the fat about yesterday's stage to Prato Nevoso, which saw the first wobble of the race for Simon Yates...

The average speed for the first hour today was 39.8 kmph which is pretty zippy considering it's been pretty much uphill since the start. We're approaching the summit of the Colle del Lys soon and still no break has got away. Perhaps something will happen on the 22km descent and the 30km false flat ahead of the Colle delle Finestre?

Another rider to retire is Vasil Kiryienka of Team Sky. That will be a big loss for Chris Froome, for whom the Belarusian was a key mountain lieutenant.

So much for bigging up Fabio Aru's chances: we're hearing that the Italian naitonal champion has abandoned the race. He's had a shambolic Giro on all counts - and is a serious cause for concern for his team's sponsors, whose new riders (Aru, Dan Martin and Alexander Kristoff) have all failed to live up to their big-money contracts since arriving in the close season...

Ben Hermans (Israel Cycling Academy) and Davide Formolo (Bora-Hansgrohe) both have a pop before the race crests the San Giovanni peak half way up this climb. But they're given no leeway. No surprise there - Formolo may not be a GC threat in terms of the pink jersey, but he's only 10 minutes down in 17th place and there are too many riders ahead of him wanting to protect their positions in the top 10 or 15.