Good morning folks, and welcome to the Eurosport live blog for Il Lombardia, the final monument of the season, the Ride of the Falling Leaves. I'm Tom Owen. You can reach me with questions, queries and personal sleights over on Twitter at @tomowencc.

And this is great tactics from Deceuninck. Cavagna has rested up just a little bit and is now able to give Jungels a pull as they continue up the Muro di Sormano.

It's two minutes between the front of the race and the peloton, with Jungels somewhere in that gap.

Jungels is picking off riders from the break as he powers toward the front of the race.

The Madonna is over. It's time for the Muro. Masnada and Skujins are now together again, but will we see them splinter once more?

Looks like Mikel Landa has abandoned the race. He's off to Bahrain Merida next season, so that'll be the last we see of him in a Movistar shirt.

Giovanni Carboni escapes from the peloton and Bob Jungels is quick to follow him.

Masnada is still solo off the front, with a gap to the peloton of 2'30". Skujins has managed to settle things a little and he looks to be gaining ground again on Masnada.

Masnada probably doesn't fancy doing 75km solo, so he'll maybe let Skujins hop on and they can combine efforts.

Team Ineos take to the front of the peloton now. Their main man is Egan Bernal, who won the Gran Piemonte on Thursday. He's a hot favourite for the victory today and has backup from youngg climbing aces like Tao Geoghegan Hart and Ivan Sosa

And that looks to be curtains for Skujins. Masnada is distancing Cavagna too. How he'd dearly love to leave Androni for his new team CCC with a monument victory under his belt.

Skujins is lagging behind his two companions just by a few bike lengths. That's not great news for the Latvian at this early stage in the race.

The break has disintegrated almost completely and it's the real star names that have persevered. Skujins, Masnada and Cavagna are now a leading trio.

The peloton take up their cudgels and instantly make a dent in the break's gap as they hit the lower slopes of the Barni.

The gap has been about four minutes for most of the day. It has crept up and down a little bit, perhaps as the peloton plays a game of cat and mouse with the break – or perhaps vice versa?

The break begins its descent to the shores of Lake Como where they'll grab a much-needed musette.

Giovanni Visconti is taking part in his 13th Il Lombardia today. Only Mauro Gianetti and the unbreakable Davide Rebellin have started more editions.

And sure enough, Petr Rikunov (Gazprom) has lost contact with the other seven leaders. I thought that might've come the other side of the feed zone, but there you go. The Russian rider just not feeling it today – and given the quality in the break with him, who can blame the guy?

The gap is out again to 4'30". Spirited stuff from the eight men in the lead, but they must be apprehensive about what's to come. I wonder if we'll see some skirmishing between them.

The race is climbing now before it will drop down, allowing the riders to take a feed as the course hugs the shores of Lake Como, before heading into three serious ascents; the Barni, the Madonna de Ghisallo and the Muro di Sormano.

We're close to the final 100km of this epic race and the stage is set beautifully for a dust-up in the hills around Lake Como. Get yourself in front of a HD screen because this race is one of the most beautiful of the year. Live pictures on Eurosport in half an hour.

Answers on a postcard!

After that descent the gap to the breakaway is less than four minutes. That has come down quickly, perhaps under the renewed chase effort of Movistar, who have come to the front to control things alongside Jumbo.

Perhaps Alejandro Valverde is feeling up for this today? Or maybe we'll see a bit of #FreeLanda action?

Interestingly, despite being one of the teams of the past two years and boasting perhaps the world's fastest sprinter in Dylan Groenewegen, the team we now know as Jumbo-Visma has not won a monument since 2010, back when they were known as Rabobank.

Typically, you'd rely on your fast, endurance men to deliver monuments – names like Gilbert, Sagan, van Avermaet – but in today's climbing-heavy course, the Dutch squad has a real opportunity to end those nine years of hurt.

Alongside leader Roglic will be Sepp Kuss, the dynamic American climber, as well as Robert Gesink, who missed the Giro earlier this year with a late injury and Steven Kruijswijk who podiumed the Tour de France earlier this year. Talk about firepower.