Ciao ragazzi! Welcome to live coverage of stage 2 of the Giro d'Italia - an undulating 205km schlep from Bologna to Fucecchio.

So, I got thing wrong: the reason why there has been no action from the sprinters for these TV sprints is because today's stage is a category C stage which means there are points up for grabs only for the first five riders. So the cyclamen jersey points were all off the table by the time the peloton passed through.

A reminder of our eight breakaway riders: Francois Bidard (Ag2R-La Mondiale), Marco Frapporti (Androni-Sidermec), Mirco Maestri (Bardiani-CSF), Lukasz Owsian (CCC Team), Sean Bennett (EF Education First), Damiano Cima (Nippo-Vini Fantini), Giulio Ciccone and William Clarke (Trek-Segafredo).

Back on the front of the race and Italians Cima and Maestri zip off early and it's Cima from Nippo-Vini Fantini who takes it ahead of Bardiani's Maestri.

The pace is really high now with reports of some sidewinds ahead. It's got nervous and it's all bunched together ahead of the next intermediate sprint in Empoli. The gap is 2'45" for the eight-man break.

CRASH: A rider form Israel Cycling Academy has gone down on the gritty verge on the side of the road. It's Guillaume Boivin the Canadian. He looks to be in a bit of pain but he's got back on his bike despite a gash on his left knee and a torn jersey. It's going to be a tough hour and a half for Boivin here on in.

The pack is all strung out as they bring the break to within three minutes. There were in fact no more points up for grabs at the intermediate sprint and so it wasn't contested behind - but that will be different for the next one.

Marco Frapporti kicks clear near the summit to take the intermediate sprint ahead of Damiano Cima and Mirco Maestri. Frapporti was the most combative rider last year as he amassed more breakaway kilometres than anyone else. Those points were for two competitions: the points classification (for which there is the maglia ciclamino) and the intermediate sprint classification, which has no jersey but a cash prize and a place on the final podium in Verona. Frapporti won the latter last year - and he's on the right track again this year, too.

Ciccone leads the break as they come within one kilometre of the summit and this intermediate sprint at Montespertoli. 3'10" the gap.

With the road heading up now towards the intermediate sprint, the teams of the big sprinters have sent men on the front to help place their fast men in a good position. Jumbo-Visma and Mitchelton-Scott also have their entire teams riding in formation. Behind them are Bahrain Merida and Astana.

The pace is far quicker than expected today with the riders zipping along faster than the quickest average expected speed. The gap is back to 3'30" for the leaders with the short climb to the first intermediate sprint coming right up.

Tom Dumoulin is the latest rider to drop back. The big Dutchman gives his DS his rain jacket and they chew the fat a little. Dumoulin was surprisingly slow yesterday in the TT: fifth place and 28 seconds off the pace. He also only set the 18th best time on the flat segment, which may have been a reflection on his fears about that final steep ramp.

There have been a few splits in the peloton after the feed zone but the pace isn't high and it should come back together again. Vincenzo Nibali is one of those distanced for Bahrain Merida, while another Italian, Elia Viviani, is currently spraying some grease on his chain back with his QuickStep team car.

The peloton has gone through the feedzone with the gap just under three minutes. The rain gear continues to come off and there continues to be some nervous, tense beef between the teams doing the chasing - Bora and UAE the latest to do some grade-A Italian gesticulating, in this case courtesy of Cesere Benedetti, who's just torn shreds from Tom Bohli. Given that the Swiss is riding his maiden Giro, that's a bit much from the veteran of four Giri.

We've entered the second half of this stage and the final 100 clicks. The break still has three minutes so it's looking good for Giulio Ciccone and those KOM points but you'd expect them to be reeled in easily before the finish.

Some hightlights from yesterday...

It's blue sky with the odd puffy clouds now - the calm before the metaphorical storm that will come in the form of those four climbs (two of which are categorised) in the final third of today's stage. The gap is 3'05" for the eight leaders, so no change there. Lotto Soudal, UAE Team Emirates, Jumbo-Visma, Bora Hansgrophe and Deceuninck-QuickStep share out the chasing duties on the front of the pack.

Reporting from the road, it's our very own Matt Stephens...

Before those two climbs I mentioned there's the small matter of the two intermediate TV sprints, which come atop the little climb of Montespertoli with 75km remaining and then in Empoli with 58km to go. These two sprints will provide a little taster for us ahead of today's expected bunch sprint finale - and they should be contested given the points available for the maglia ciclamino competition.

That picture was from the previous climb when it was much wetter. Things have dried out now and many of the rain capes have come off. Three minutes the gap now for the break, who'll have their work cut out keeping a decent-enough lead ahead of the climbs coming up in the final third.

There's some words between Andrey Zeits of Astana and a rider from Jumbo-Visma, who the former feels should be doing more work on the front to reduce the gap, given their man Primoz Roglic is in pink. It's all a bit unnecessary because, the question of respecting the maglia rosa aside, there's really no huge threat from this break and Jumbo-Visma are obliged to do nothing, especially not vis-a-vis Astana. The gap is now 3'05" for the leaders so it's coming down, in any case.