But as I type that, there's a pile-up in the breakaway. David de la Cruz slides off on a tight right-hander, taking out Sebastian Langeveld, the Dutch road champion, in the process. Langeveld is back up and on his bike but poor old De La Cruz is heading for an early shower, via the X-ray room. He's still on the deck, clutching his collar-bone.

The quintet in the daily breakaway are Trek rider Gregory Rast, (who is the best-placed on the road one hour, 20 minutes, 59 seconds adrift of race leader Vincenzo Nibali), Sebastian Langeveld of Garmin-Sharp, Orica GreenEdge's Simon Clarke, David De La Cruz of NetApp Endura and Florian Vachon of Bretagne-Seche.

Image source, Tour de France

So, on to today's stage. The riders left Bourg-en-Bresse at 12:02 BST and in the opening couple of hours or so have cycled the opening 90km of the 185.5km stage.

Five riders are in a break and are almost five minutes clear of the peloton. They've been up and down the opening two climbs of the day - the category four Col de Brouilly (1.7km at an average gradient of 5.1%) and the category three Cote du Saule-d'Oingt (3.8km at 4.5%).

Green Jersey
Classification

However, Sagan and his Cannondale team have not quite found the formula for delivering their star man to the finish line first so far, with his reputation for having a fast finish starting to hamper him.

The 24-year-old Slovakian chucked his bike away in disgust after Wednesday's finish before calming down to focus on today's race. "I am confident and every day I'm trying to do something better," he said before adding: "But I'm hoping for the green jersey in Paris."

Today's profile is interesting Bryan Coquard, the man who is second in the green jersey standings. He simple said today's "finish suits me".

Green Jersey
Classification

Sagan leads the points classification, which rewards consistently high finishes on each stage, by 137 points.

1. Peter Sagan (Svk/Cannondale) 301

2. Bryan Coquard (Fra/Europcar) 164

3. Marcel Kittel (Ger/Giant-Shimano) 157

4. Alexander Kristoff (Nor/Katusha) 127

5. Andre Greipel (Ger/Lotto-Belisol) 111

Image source, Tour de France

Team Sky rider and BBC columnist Geraint Thomas is among those suggesting 24-year-old Peter Sagan is the one to beat on stage 12. Thomas made his prediction before the Tour started and while Sagan looks to have the green points jersey classification wrapped up, he is yet to win a stage in the 101st edition. Could today be the day?

Geraint Thomas's view: "This could be an interesting day in the battle for the green points jersey. Riders pick up points depending on where they finish each stage and the points jersey is usually contested by the quicker men in the peloton. It might be a day when the Cannondale team of Peter Sagan try and control the race and go hard up the final climb to try and get rid of the sprinters."

Hello and welcome to live text commentary of stage 12 of the 2014 Tour de France. We are in beautiful Beaujolais country today as the riders take on a 185.5km ride from Bourg-en-Bresse to Saint Etienne.

The profile is similar to Wednesday's 11th stage, with four categorised climbs - two cat threes and two cat fours - and that means Peter Sagan is the name on everyone's lips again for the stage victory.

Image source, AP

"It's my girlfriend's birthday and I wanted to do well for her and win the stage," said Cannondale team leader Peter Sagan after finishing ninth on Wednesday's stage 11 of the Tour de France.

"But at least I got the flowers from the podium for her," he added after collecting the green jersey as leader of the points classification.