Katusha rider Joaquim Rodriguez currently has the polka dot jersey, with two points to his name.

There are enough points up for grabs today to ensure that somebody in the breakaway could snatch the jersey if they won all of the three category four climbs on offer.

Two of them are coming up soon (72km and 77.5km), the third is some way down the road at 162 km.

MTN-Quebeka rider Daniel Teklehaimanot is the highest placed rider in the general classification of the three men in the breakaway. He is currently 120th.

The lead is just under six minutes with 125km left.

Image source, EPA

This breakaway group of three might not be out on their own for all that long. They had a 12-minute advantage at one point. That is now less than seven minutes.

Image source, EPA

Conditions look pretty good for the riders.

And with this stage the closest to the UK, there will hopefully be a few Brits by the road cheering on the race.

I took the nipper to Paris last year for the final stage. He loved the yellow flag and big green plastic hand that he still occasionally waves around. Now five, I'd suggest he focuses on learning to ride a bike. 

We asked whether you thought Cav would come good during the Tour - or whether it was all downhill from here.

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There were attacks off the front pretty much from the moment the riders rolled out of Abbeville at 11:45 BST.

Cofidis's Luis Angel Maté was quickly reined in but Europcar's Perrig Quémeneur, Cofidis's Kenneth Van Bilsen and MTN-Quebeka's Daniel Teklehaimanot did open up some time over the peloton.

By 15km their advantage was the long side of four minutes, right now, with almost 50km completed, they have an advantage of a shade under 10 minutes although it was bigger at one stage.

Image source, Le Tour de France

As the tweet below from Geraint Thomas indicates, there will be a lot of coastal action today as the 191.5km stage takes us from Abbeville to Le Havre.

Here is the Team Sky rider's take on today from his 2015 stage guide: "There's a little uphill finish so it could be one for Sagan or Australia's Michael Matthews rather than the pure sprinters. Maybe Valverde might get up there, too. It depends on what that little kick is like but certainly those riders' teams will try to take the legs out of the pure sprinters like Cavendish and Kristoff."  

Cav chose to heap praise on Greipel rather than suggest he was out of form.

"He's a phenomenal sprinter, he's in the green jersey and that's the second stage he won this year," said the 30-year-old.

But as the BBC's Matt Slater argued on Wednesday, although Cav is right to praise the man known as the Gorilla, "the fact is he used to beat Greipel, and almost everybody else, nearly all the time".

Just a few years ago Greipel was a reserve sprinter behind Cav at HTC-Colombia but has now done him twice in the race so far. And let's not forget that this year's Tour is without Marcel Kittel, who took eight stage victories in 2013 and 2014.

In 2008, 2010, 2011 and 2013 Cavendish had his first stage victory at stage five - not so yesterday.  

So, should we be worried about Cav and his ability to edge his stage victories towards the 28 held by Bernard Hinault (he currently has 25)?

Or are we still backing him to come good and snatch some glory this year?

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Image source, Getty images

Image source, EPA

Mark Cavendish might have moaned after the sprint went wrong on stage two, but he had no complaints after losing out to Andre Greipel yet again on Wednesday, with Peter Sagan snatching second.

"Today I was just beaten," said Cavendish.

"It was a bit chaotic. Greipel and Sagan just came past me in the end.

"I actually did a good sprint, but I was just beaten by two other guys. They just went faster."