Ciao ragazzi! Welcome to live coverage of stage 6 of the Giro d'Italia - a massive (and yet not the longest) 238km schlep from Cassino to San Giovanni Rotondo.

Cracking photo of the maglia rosa with a bit of his backside hanging out after that earlier crash...

The Trek rider in this break is not Nicola Conci but Will Clarke. In any case, it looks like they will be taken back by the peloton very soon...

CRASH: The pink jersey is down! Primoz Roglic takes a tumble in the pack along with Rafal Majka (Bora-Hansgrohe) and some others. But it's not serious and they're back on their bikes in no time...

Another reason for the Dutch journalists to pack their bags and go home: Laurens ten Dam (CCC Team) has called it a day. He crashed, I think, on that crazy finale two days ago where his compatriot Tom Dumoulin hit the deck. Ten Dam was the last rider to cross the line yesterday.

Another new arrival to the break: Jasha Sutterlin of Movistar has bridged over. So we're up to seven, but still only around seven seconds to play with. Surely this won't last?

Another Italian has joined the leaders - it's Nicola Conci of Trek-Segafredo. So we have six out ahead now but the gap is under 10 seconds and still very precarious.

Just to introduce myself, it's Felix Lowe at the helm here again. I'll be bringing you live coverage of 17 out of 21 stages in this year's Giro - taking two weekends off to spend time with the newly expanded family. Apologies if you saw my bumbling debut on The Breakaway last night with Orla, Nico and Smithy. If they'll have be back on the couch, I should be back tonight after today's stage...

Those five riders have come together but their advantage over the pack is only 10 seconds so it's far from decided. Seeing that the break is heavily tipped to go all the way today, it's no doubt going to be a prolonged battle for many teams to ensure they get someone in the mix.

Marco Marcato (UAE Team Emirates), Lorenzo Rota (Bardiani-CSF) and Nans Peters (Ag2R-La Mondiale) are trying to bridge over to the leaders.

Fausto Masnada (Androni Giocattoli) and Krists Neilands (Israel Cycling Academy) have opened up a small gap.

No move is yet to stick after the first eight kilometres - although it's been very active with numerous riders trying their luck.

There's been talk that today could be the day that Primoz Roglic lets someone else take over the pink jersey: not one of his big GC rivals, mind, but a plucky journeyman prepared to get into the right break. All will be revealed shortly...

They're off! The remaining 169 riders rolled out of Cassino to get this stage under way after a short neutralised zone of 2km.

And here's what's on the menu today: a rolling stage with numerous uncategorised bumps before an exciting finale that features a Cat.2 climb, a steep wall, a fast run towards the line, and a slightly uphill kick.

After all that rain yesterday, the sun has returned to the Giro. Here's a snap of race leader Primoz Roglic chewing the morning fat with the maglia ciclamino Pascal Ackermann, who extended his lead in the points competition with that second win yesterday.

The finish was neutralised yesterday at the first crossing of the line owing to the atrocious conditions and so there's no change in the GC.

Yesterday, Pascal Ackermann timed his finish to perfection to edge Fernando Gaviria on the line and win a sodden stage 5. Gaviria launched early but it was Ackermann who had the power, storming over for his second stage win of the race and further justifying his selection as Bora-Hansgrohe’s lead sprinter instead of Sam Bennett.