Image source, Reuters

Go on Bertie! Let's get this going early.

Alberto Contador has a pop out of the yellow jersey group. Alejandro Valverde and Geraint Thomas are the ones to react to haul him in.

Positive stuff. Does it also suggest that Valverde is racing for Quintana today, rather than his own third place?

Speaking of BBC Radio 5 live, get off your chair and doff your cap to this fella.

Commentator Simon Brotherton has now worked on 20 Tours. I was 11 years old when he started...

BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra

This is the view the BBC Radio 5 live sports extra team woke up to today.

Not jealous at all. Not one bit. I don't even like glorious alpine views.

Simon Brotherton and Rob Hayles will bring you commentary of stage 19 on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra and online from 15:00.

That Peter Sagan group has caught up with the boys out in front, but it has also dropped Peter Sagan (does that make sense?). There are 25 riders out front and the yellow jersey group is 35 seconds back. We're about halfway up Col du Chaussy.

Despite the lack of yellow jersey movement yesterday, there was plenty of action on the slopes to Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne.

Nairo Quintana, Froome's closest rival in the yellow jersey race, made attempts to shake off the Team Sky rider. So did Alberto Contador and Vincenzo Nibali. They all failed, partly in thanks to the scampering and scurrying of Geraint Thomas.

And what about Romain Bardet? Breaking away on the Col du Glandon and holding on until the end to add a bit of French fancy for the stage win.

Image source, AFP

Behind that front group is a bunch of attackers off the yellow jersey group. Green jersey man Peter Sagan is there, probably keeping himself in contention for the sprint at the bottom of Col du Chaussy. Yesterday's runner-up Pierre Rolland and consistent front-runner Andrew Talansky are in the mix too.

Image source, AP

He's held it since stage seven, and it will take something very, very extraordinary to peel that yellow jersey off his slender frame before the parade into Paris on Sunday.

Chris Froome looked ever so slightly human yesterday, for he first time in almost three weeks, but with a little help from his friends, the Team Sky man gave away no ground in his pursuit of a second Tour de France title.

Nairo Quintana and Alejandro Valverde - today is the day you have to test what the Kenya-born Briton is really made of. But I suspect it might be stern stuff.

Already there's a group off the front on Col du Chaussy. And polka dot wearer Joaquim Rodriguez is there. More on the climbers' situation in a moment.

Image source, Le Tour

A short but hopefully very sweet stage today folks. We're already straight into a category-one climb up Col du Chaussy,

At about halfway comes the beast that is Col de la Croix de Fer and then there's the romp up to La Toussuire to finish.

We asked Geraint Thomas about each stage before the Tour started - his thoughts on today are quite interesting.

"There is always somebody in the top seven or eight who can still be pretty dangerous on a stage like this, even if they are four or five minutes down."  

Nairo Quintana is 3mins 10secs down. You never know...

Beinvenue to stage 19 of the Tour de France.

The big names have rolled through the neutral zone, and the race from Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne to La Toussuire is on.