Giro d’Italia stage 11 LIVE: Narváez in a leading group of six as finish of punchy stage approaches

This is one hell of a ride by Scaroni. Having dropped Stuyven, he’s now caught Barguil.

Ulissi is leading the group, no more attacks coming yet.

1km to the summi, will anyone try to attack out of this 5-man lead group?

Chapeau to Scaroni who, despite looking in pain, is soldiering on and has just caught Stuyven.

Harper, Vlasov, Mas and Narváez have closed down Ulissi.

Stuyven and Barguil are dropped.

Attack by Ulissi!

Stuyven is only just hanging on.

Now things could get interesting, as the gradient ramps up.

Now Vlasov takes over.

Harper has now taken to the front and setting the pace.

There was a mistake in thr time gaps – the trio were much closer than stated, and Harper and the others have actually managed to catch them already.

Harper is taking things into his own hands, and attacked out of the chase group.

This is getting urgent for the chasers now, who need to reduce that gap on this climb, or risk losing a chance at the stage win.

Narváez, Stuyven and Vlasov swing onto the climb, leading the 6-man chase group by 40 seconds now.

Scaroni is up and riding, but some way adrift from the main chase group.

The leading trio are increasing their lead, to 15 seconds.

A crash, and it’s happened in the break. Van Eetvelt, Zana and Scroni have all gone down on the descent.

Back in the peloton, Denz is the latest rider to be caught.

Now Van Eetvelt joins them.

Ulissi has dragged a group containing his teammate Scaroni, Bais, Barguil, Zana and Crescioli back to the three leaders.

Bettiol is caught by the peloton having been dropped earlier.

These three are looking good and working together to increase their lead.

Narváez and Harper have gone with Mas.

Mas is attacking!

Scaroni and Zana are chasing to try and join the leaders.

Ulissi, Mas, Harper, Narváez, Bais, Barguil and Crescioli are clear, and about 20 seconds clear from the rest.

Not quite all together – in fact there’s now clear from the rest.

Ulissi is pushing on at the front of the race and briefly split the group, but it’s back together now.

They’re on the climb, and the break’s lead is up to over tow minutes.

This one, the Colle di Guaitarola, is the hardest of the day, the only one rated as high as category two, and the longest at 9.6km (with an average of over6%).

And now the rest of the riders in that chase group also make it to the leaders, just before the climb’s summit.

Scaroni has made it into the lead group.

Scaroni is going it alone, attacking out of the chase group.

There are five chasers left in the group Narváez left behind, still hopeful of joining him in the lead group with 30 seconds to make up: Barguil, Scaroni, Zana, Tonelli, Rolland and Marcellusi.

Narváez on his way to the lead group.

Back in the peloton, Bahrain is riding tempo to control things, but are happy let the break stay clear.

He’s made it, that 35 second deficit made up in no time at all. At last, UAE has a man in the lead group.

Narváez is looking in fantastic form once more. He’s nearly up to the leaders already.

Barguil tried to follow Narváez, but couldn’t follow the pace, leving Narváez chasing by himself.

Progress has stalled in the Narváez group, however, prompting him to attack out of it.

At long last, Mas and Van Eetvel have made it into the front group. They’ll have to hope they’ll still have enouh left in the tank to compete for the stage later.

The pace in the peloton is slow enough for some dropped riders to return into it on this climb, including Magnier.

The pace at last has slowed in the peloton. Is everyone at last happy with the break(s)?

The riders are on the official climb now.

Leknessund is also in the Narváez group, having dropped out of the lead group.

Narváez has been joined by a few other riders in the counter-attack.

Attack from Narváez. He’s trying to steal a march by attacking on an uphill before the official start of the climb.

Almost time for the first of the day’s three uncategorised climb, the category three Passo del Termine.

Some familiar names from earlier attacks are present in it, including Ciccone, Sobrero and Scaroni.

A new counter-attack grop is trying to go clear of the peloton.

The breakaway group leading the race.

UAE are leading the peloton with Arrieta, and are trying to bring all the breakaway riders back within sight again.

Behind Mas, more riders are trying to use this climb to go clear. Van Eetvelt has succeded, and has just caught Mas.

This change in terrain is already having an effect, with Planckaert dropped out of the break.

This unclassified climb marks the start of the next phase of the race, which swaps the earlier flat for lots of climbing.

Things had calmed down in the peloton, but as the road goes up again for another unclassified climb, Enric Mas launches an attack.

Incidentally, Chris Harper is the highest placed rider on GC in the break, at 7:22. So if this break does go clear, there may be some teams defending top ten sports on GC who try to chase it.

The group that went clear from the peloton on climb has been brough back, and another formed in its place. But it too only has a small gap.

Van Eetvelt has been joined by a few others as they go over the top, including Ciccone.

Attack from Van Eetvelt.

Sobrero has been caught, as Jhonatan Narváez takes over at the front of the peloton.

Lidl have launched Sobrero, who has attacked just as the road tilted upwards for an uncategorised hill.

Lidl are also working with UAE. Both those teams missed the break despite having started the day with some of the day’s favourites (like Ciccone for the former, and Christen and Narváez for the latter), and still have designs on the stage.

Harper, Bais and Leknessund, before being joined by the chase group.

But this isn’t over yet! UAE have woken the peloton into life again by upping the pace once more with Bjerg.

The chase group has joined Bais, Leknessund and Harper, forming a new lead group of 12.

Ballerini has spent the whole time since his crash chasing back into the peloton, but he’s at last made it back again. Tht’s great to see, as he appeared to go down hard and took a while to get back onto his bike.

And things have calmed down in the peloton. It looks like this will e the break of the day.

It looks like this chase group is goin to join the three leaders – they’re come to within 20 seconds of them, and are over a minute up on the peloton.

The break hoovers up the Maglia Ciclamino points at the intermediate sprint, with Bais taking the maximum.

Those riders in the group in between – Vlasov, Denz, Bettiol, Ulissi, Stuyven, Planckaert, Hoelgaard, Crescioli and Naberman.

We’re only a few kilometres away from the intermediate sprint, and these breaks have enough of a lead to rule put Milan and Magnier from getting any points. Milan has been more subdued than in previous stages, where he persevered for many kilometres in attempts to get into the break and claim points.

There are also 2 Red Bull riders in this move, including Vlasov. The team appear to be riding more aggressively, now that both their GC leaders have lost some time in the time trial.

More have joined this Bettiol, amg them some very powerful riders, including Stuyven again.

Now a new chase group of four has formed, driven by Alberto Bettiol.

That gap’s growing – it’s now up to just under a minute.

Johan Jacobs has managed to get daylight between himself and the peloton, and is now chasing the three leaders.

The attack keep coming behind Harper, Bais and Leknessund, but for now they’re all cancelling each other out.

This trio are going deep to try to make this one stick.

At the front, Harper, Leknessund and Bais have a small gap.

Crash – only one rider down, Davide Ballerini. He’s back on his bike but only gingerly so.

Out the front of the peloton, the attack are coming thick and fast, but still nothing’s sticking.

The race appears to have all come back together, with those caught out in the splt rejoining the front peloton.

The breakaway from earlier, before they were brought back.

The leading duo are caught.

There’s been a big split in the peloton, though only a handful of seconds between them.

Two riders have gone clear, and it’s two men from the original break – Ballerini and Stuyven.

The peloton is all stretched out as they descend from a small uncategorised rise.

That’s it, the peloton has made contact.

The peloton can see the break, they’re only 8 seconds behind now.

Arrieta is caught and his UAE teammate Narváez counters.

Having held steady at 30 seconds for a while, the reak’s lead is coming down again, to under 20 seconds.

Arrieta has attacked out of the bunch to try to bridge up to the break himself.

There are 12 riders in the break: Scaroni, Ballerini, Ciccone, Stuyven, Mozzato, Huens, Jacobs, Garcia Cortina, Pinarello, Rutsch, Bouwman and Zukowsky.

Many in the peloton still aren’t happy with this break. UAE had been working at the front to bring them back, and now the wildcard teams Bardiani and Polti have taken over, having also failed to get a rider in it.

Scaroni is the highest placed rider on GC in the group, in 16th at 6:59. He lost a lor of time in yeterday’s time trial, perhaps in the hope of being allowed to get into a break like this.

This lead group is staying clear from the peloton for now, but Ciccone doesn’t look happy with the cohesion, gesticulating towards some others in the group.

Morgado hasn’t gone clear though, and so fellow UAE rider Bjerg is pulling at the front of the peloton

UAE have missed the move and are trying to ammend that, with Morgado attacking from the peloton.

Also in this leading group are Bouwman, Garcia Cortina, Bayer, Mozzato, and others.

There’s a third Astana rider in this group too, and they’re keen to make this move stick by riding at the front.

More riders are trying to join them from the peloton behind.

There are plenty more quality riders along with Ciccone in this group, including former stage winner Ballerini, his Astana teammate Scaroni, and Stuyven.

That group hss a lead of 15 seconds.

Ciccone is among these riders. He’s one of the favourites for the stage win.

Already there are about 15 riders off the front with that Groupama rider, with more trying to join.

The riders will begin from a standing start, as they’ve been stopped at KM 0 for the flag wave alongsde some VIPs.

Vingegaard talking to Magnier at the start. Magnier will once again have to be attentive to keep an eye on points classification rival Jonathan Milan, as there’s an intermediate spint coming up 68km from the start that will surely have his eye on.

Jonas Vingegaard at the start, still wearing the blue King of the Montain’s jersey, having failed to depose Afonso Eulálio in pink.

The riders are off for the unofficial start. This is going to be a big fight to get into the break, so many will want to get to as close to the front as possible.