UAE Team Emirates are setting a ferocious pace on the climb up the Cote de Barbotto.

Are they setting this up for Tadej Pogacar? The Giro winner is currently being shadowed by defending champion Jonas Vingegaard.

Up ahead Ion Izagirre pops and Jonas Abrahamsen will fancy getting hold of the polka dot jersey later.

David Gaudu is being dropped. He was fourth in the general classification a couple of years and arguably France's big hope this time around.

UAE Team Emirates come to the fore at the front of the main bunch. The race for the stage very much starts here.

The time gap drops below the four-minute mark. All the signs point to a winner of stage one coming from the peloton.

EF Education-EasyPost are pushing the pace at the front of the main bunch who are still over four minutes down on the breakaway.

Alberto Bettiol, who will know these roads well given he's from Tuscany will surely fancy hs chances today but could Ecuadorian rider Richard Carapaz, also be a second card the US team could play?

Carapaz, lowered expectations around his own form after a crash at the Tour de Suisse and a recent illness.

The former Giro d'Italia winner was forced out with a knee injury after falling heavily in stage one this time last year and may just fancy this

Michele Gazzoli has abandoned on his debut. He was one of the Astana Qazaqstan riders looking after Mark Cavendish before.

Gazzoli is only the second rider to abandon on his Tour bow this century after Herve Duclos-Lassalle in 2008.

Duclos-Lassalle, who broke his wrist, was not given another opportunity to ride Le Grand Boucle.

Now there are still plenty of points up for grabs today but here is how the KOM competition is going thus far:

1. Ion Izagirre (Cofidis), 8 points2. Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility), 5 points3. Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ), 3 points

Image source, Getty Images

On ITV4 commentary, Peter Kennaugh, who is a friend and former teammate of Mark Cavendish, says a section of the incoming category two climb up the Cote de Barbotto ramps up to around 15-16% in sections but that will feel like a 35% gradient to the 34-time stage winner.

Fabio Jakobsen and Bram Welten are now in the Gruppetto and there'll be a few more to follow yet judging by some of grimaces on faces heading up the Cote de Carnaio.

Nils Politt also looks in bother further up the road.

Roles reversed as Ion Izagirre crests the Cote de Carnaio summit first to collect two KOM points. Just the solitary point for Jonas Abrahamsen.

Jonas Rickaert has joined the Mark Cavendish group, which looks like it is about to sweep up a couple of DSM-firmenich PostNL riders.

Up ahead Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Arnaud Demare (Arkea-B&B Hotels) and Lenny Martinez (Groupama-FDJ) are all in trouble.

Clement Champoussin drops away from the leading group, shortly after Sandy Dujardin.

Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Victorious), Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ), Ion Izagirre (Cofidis), Frank Van den Broek (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL), Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X) and Ryan Gibbons (Lidl-Trek) all remain.

Behind them the peloton is also splintering and there are now six groups on the road.

The likes of Dylan Groenewegen, Jan Hirt and Alexander Kristoff have all been spat out of the main bunch.

Lots of riders with their race jerseys wide open as the main bunch tackles the third climb of the day - the Cote de Carnaio.

It is around 35°C out on the road. Not the sort of weather to be heading up and down mountains.

Ion Izagirre currently has six KOM points after finishing second to Jonas Abrahamsen on the Cote des Forche, a little earlier.

The time limits for each stage are essentially set by ASO, the organisers of the Tour de France and are laid out in the ‘Road Book,’ which is the detailed guide to each stage.

The organisers decide the difficulty of each stage, by giving it a score from one to six, also known as the coefficients.

The time cut is then determined by how fast the stage winner actually rides the stage, using their average speed as a benchmark and the time limit extends as the stages get more difficult.

Image source, Getty Images

Mark Cavendish has work to do here to make the time limit for the stage.

Speaking prior to the the roll out he said: "Nervous, yeah. I'm always like that for the Tour de France anyway. We should be okay.

"I did Tour de Suisse. I think I'm going good enough. But if I'm behind, there'll be a lot of other guys behind as well. So we'll see what happens. It's a race. We don't really think about the race, we think about what we can do now. It's two races within a race, today anyway.

"Tomorrow should be a bit better. But it's the hardest Tour de France start I've ever done, that's for sure."

He currently trails the peloton by over five minutes with around 120km to go.

The eight escapees have around three minutes and 30 seconds on the peloton at the moment.

Image source, Getty Images

Four-time champion Chris Froome was omitted from Israel-Premier Tech's Tour de France team for the second year running.

And is spending the day watching Rugby sevens with his former Team Sky pal Luke Rowe.

The way he appears to be feeling I bet Mark Cavendish would prefer to be doing that at present.

Froome, who has not won a race since 2018, finished 81st in the recent Criterium du Dauphine, an event used traditionally to gauge form prior to La Grande Boucle.

The 39-year-old Froome, has endured a difficult opening to the season after fracturing his wrist in the Tirreno-Adriatico in March and only returned to racing in May.

Image source, @chrisfroome

Not a sight you'd want to see while eating lunch...Mark Cavendish appears to vomit while heading down the Col de Valico Tre Faggi.

The gap to the peloton is coming down slowly mind. It was over four minutes. Around 30 seconds have been shaved off.

Mark Cavendish is being doused in water every time the cameras focus on him. He is yet to get over the top of the first climb and is now almost three minutes behind the main peloton.

Davide Ballerini, Michele Gazzoli, Cees Bol and Michael Morkov, nurse him over the top and to some welcome respite.

A long horrible day ahead for Cavendish by the looks of it albeit one or two of the other sprinters appear to struggling as well up ahead.

Back up the road the leading group have a healthy five-and-a-half-minute advantage as the first KOM points come up for grabs and Ion Izagirre snaffles five points in a sprint to the line.