Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of stage 12 of the Giro d'Italia.
General classification
Fabio Jakobsen abandons
Stage 12 route
191km to go: The flag has been dropped and we've got attacks instantly as riders look to immediately form a breakaway.
184 km to go: Matteo Trentin (Tudor Pro Cycling) is up the road in a three man move.
Jonathan Milan, yesterday's stage winner, was off the back of the main field a moment ago getting a bike change.
180km to go: Trentin is really driving that move on. The gap is 22 seconds at the moment and rising.
Enzo Paleni (Groupama FDJ) and Roel van Sintmaartensdijk (Intermarche Wanty) are the other two riders with Trentin.
173 km to go: The peloton are flying at the moment and setting a pretty intense pace.
Now the bunch seem to have sat up a little and the lead the Trentin group has is now more than 30 seconds.
A handful of guys are trying to orchestrate a move getting across to the leaders.
160 km to go: Simone Velasco (Astana Qazaqstan) is the next man to try and get a group across the gap to the front.
Filippo Ganna is in this group trying to get across.
156km to go: Its all over for now for the Trentin group.
153 km to go: Trentin's move has been swept up. A handful of other riders are looking to try and form a new breakaway.
146km to go: We've got a fresh four man group tryingto build an advantage now.
That four man move now has 32 seconds advantage.
141km to go: 48 seconds for that group now. This could be the move today.... we will see.
138km to go: We're not too far from the start of the climbs now. The break has 1:10 as the peloton dips under a railway bridge.
We're onto the climbs.
Situation on the road
124 km to go: Just as I've written that out, Julian Alaphilippe and Maestri have attacked from the break and have gone clear.
Sánchez beat Alaphilippe to a stage win just a matter of days ago and he clearly doesn't fancy going up against him again.
Hello, Adam Becket here taking over while Tom Thewlis goes on lunch. I'll be talking you through the next hour of break business.
119km to go: There are three groups on the road behind the lead duo of Alaphilippe and Maestri. There's a chasing group, with Narváez and Clarke and the rest, which numbers 17. There's a big group behind, in between them and the peloton, which contains Nairo Quintana (Movistar) and Jan Hirt (Soudal Quick-Step), both of whom are reasonably high up the GC. That group has about 13 in it.
117km to go: It's not entirely clear why Alaphilippe decided to go off the front when he did, considering the power that is behind. 117km is a long way to go, especially with the elevation to come.
117km to go: Jan Hirt of Soudal Quick-Step, who is in the chasing group, is currently 11th in the GC, 5:57 behind Tadej Pogačar. The more time the break takes, the more he is a threat to his rivals overall.
116km to go: On the climb of Recanati, the two chasing groups have come together, with riders off the back too. It's chaos. It's basically a second peloton, with 36-ish riders in it. Alaphilippe and Maestri now have 56 seconds on that group.
115km to go: There is almost a third of all riders up the road, staggeringly. Alaphilippe and Maestri have 1:06 on the chasers, and 3:53 on the peloton. At the first intermediate sprint, Maestri took the points.
110km to go: I'm going to try and list the men in the breakaway, and I'll do it by last name because there are too many.
108km: The riders in 11th, 14th, 15th and 17th overall are all in this big breakaway, so they all have the opportunity to charge up the GC if this stays away. Virtually, Jan Hirt is in fourth...
The team not present in the breakaway at all, by the way, is Bora-Hansgrohe. Give yourself a treat if you got that right.
106km to go: The two up front - Alaphilippe and Maestri - are lloking good, and they've just begun the climb up to the top of Osimo, the first categorised hill of today. There are four fourth-cat climbs today, and a few more uncategorised ones left. 2,162m of climbing over 193km doesn't sound like a tonne, but it seems pretty relentless today.
105km to go: The break now has three minutes on the peloton, and Jan Hirt is closing in on Geraint Thomas' third spot, if it continues like this...
103km to go: This could, in theory, actually open the Giro up a bit more. Well, the battle for the top five, anyway. At the beginning of the day, there were just five riders within five minutes of Tadej Pogačar in the lead, the lowest since 2010. If Hirt, Pozzovivo, López etc could gain some time, then things might look more competitive.
102km to go: For the first time in forever, we have seen the front of the peloton. Bahrain-Victorious are pulling for Antonio Tiberi, who started the day in fifth, 4:27 behind Pogačar. They are gaining time on the chasing group.
100km to go: Alaphilippe and Maestri have 4:50 on the peloton, however. They seem well set, but can they make this last for three more hours?
99km to go: At the top of the Osimo climb, Maestri took the three points on offer. Six-ish climbs left to go today, only three of which are categorised. The last comes 10km from the finish, which feels decisive.
97km to go: The peloton is strung out, implying they are chasing hard, but the big breakaway is gaining time again. However, the 36 riders are 2:25 behind the duo up ahead. It's not simple at the moment.
Osimo looks nice, if you were planning a trip to the Marche.
94km to go: The counter attacks have begun! It's Tobias Bayer (Alpecin-Deceuninck) who has lit it up, and riders are following. This felt inevitable.
93km to go: The doomed 36-rider mega breakaway on stage 12 of the Giro d'Italia will forever be in our hearts. The cooperation has ended, and the attacks keep coming. Edoardo Affini (Visma-Lease a Bike) has still found time to snatch a musette.
91km to go: The break has definitely split. Scaroni and Castiou are on the front, with a group following which contains Ganna and about five others. The remainder isn't too far behind. It's relentless!
90km to go: Riders are being dropped. Costiou and Scaroni have distanced those behind; the pair have about ten seconds. Meanwhile, Ganna and Narváez are attacking together.
89km to go: About 12 of the original 36 have been jettisoned now, by my eyesight. That is not an exact science. The race is very much on.
88km to go: By the way, the peloton are still over three minutes behind. Ganna is still putting the pressure on.
86km to go: Some Colemanballs from Adam Blythe: "No one wants to close that gap down. Pozzovivo on the front now, and he wants to close that gap down." Private Eye, you can have that for free.
84km to go: Poor Ewen Costiou (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), who was on the attacker with Christian Scaroni (Astana Qazaqstan), who has a problem with his drivetrain. He will need a new Bianchi.
82km to go: It's all together in the chase now. So Alaphilippe and Maestri have 1:45 on the group behind, which now has about 30 riders in it, with the peloton a further 3:50-ish behind.
80km to go: There is actually a split again in the chase, with about 10 in the front one, including Jhonatan Narváez, who have 25 seconds advantage on the rest.
79km to go: Costiou is still waiting for help from his car, he's in the group of ten.
78km to go: Hooray, Costiou is on a bike with a working drivetrain. Sadly for the Frenchman, though, that took him out of the front chase. So that is now nine.
78km to go: Alaphilippe and Maestri, who we haven't seen for ages, are 1:50 up the road from the chasing nine. Oh, there they are! They are still the same.
76km to go: The nine are Narváez, Hermans, Scaroni, A Paret-Peintre, Valgren, Smith, Clarke, Leemreize and Trentin. They are 1:21 behind Alaphilippe and Maestri. The first nine have almost a minute on the rest of the escapees.
Tom Thewlis here.
69km to go: Maestri and Alaphilippe are still out front and riding hard. Could this finally be the Frenchman's day? 1:06 back to the next group of chasers.
I still feel like the winner in that chase group is going to get back on terms with the leaders.
68km to go: Meanwhile back down the road Bahrain Victorious are driving things pretty hard at the head of the race. Rui Oliveira from UAE was briefly helping out with the pace making there.
61km to go: The two leaders have 6:16 on the peloton as things stand out on the road.
Meanwhile there appears to be a bit of disharmony in the second chase group.
55km to go: Jan Hirt (Soudal-Quick Step) will move up to third overall as things stand.
54km to go: Valter has grown frustrated with the hesitation in the second chase group. He's ridden away from it and is looking to eat into the gap to the second set of chasers.
52km to go: This course is absolutely savage! Some of these climbs are really short but brutally steep. Maestri is starting to look pretty tired whereas Alaphilippe still looks bang up for it.
43.5 km to go: Bahrain are still riding hard on the front of the peloton ;looking to defend Antonio Tiberi's place on GC. If this continues then it's likely that Hirt won't manage to hold onto his current third place.
39 km to go: We're almost on the final categorised climb. Alaphilippe and Maestri have 1:47 on the second group on the road.
32 km to go: Alaphilippe looks fantastic.
28 km to go: Heads are starting to drop in the third group on the road. They know it's all over for them and won't be there day.
24 km to go: It looks like there's a bit more organisation behind.
The gradients touch 20% on the final climb. It's going to take a huge effort from these two leaders to hold off riders like Narváez once the climb starts to bite.
21 km to go: Just under a minute now for Alaphilippe and Maestri.
The chasers seem to have figured it out a bit behind the leaders.
17 km to go: Bahrain are still putting the hammer down in the peloton. They've forced a small split in the peloton as the race ramps up. The wind is playing a massive part here.
Looks like Bora-Hansgrohe are caught in that split! This could be serious for Dani Martinez whose second on GC.
15 km to go: The leaders advantage is coming down rapidly now. 46 seconds as things stand but the final climb is approaching.
Valgren is looking very very fresh in the second group.
Looks like its panic over in the peloton as the splits been closed.
12km to go: 43 seconds for Alaphilippe and Maestri. They're about to turn sharply left before approaching the base of the climb.
They're about to start the climb.
10 km to go: Valgren has accelerated out of the chasers. Scaroni and Narvaez are with him.
Valgren is still driving that move. A few of the other riders look cooked.
Another dig from Valgren has got rid of Simon Clarke (Israel-Premier Tech)
Alaphilippe is onto the brutl brutal 20% part towards the top. That was horrible.
9km to go: Alaphilippe has 40 seconds and is on the descent now to the final section of road.
7 km to go: These roads are absolutely horrible. Narrow, lumpy and fast! Alaphilippe has 36 seconds on Hermans and Narváez.
Valgren and Scaroni are behind them.
Here's Alaphilippe on the final climb. It was STEEP.
4.8 km to go: Alaphilippe is exploding out of the corners now on this windy run in.
1.8 km to go: This is in the bag now for Alaphilippe.
It's in the bag! Alaphilippe wins!
We'll have the usual full report for you on the site shortly
Narváez took second with Quinten Hermans (Alpecin Deceuninck) grabbing third.
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