Image source, Getty Images

Chloe Hosking holds her hands to her face, sheer shock shining all over her face as she crosses the line.

The 25-year-old Australian is straight off the bike and hugging family over the barriers.

Image source, AP

Chloe Hosking goes early. Too early? Marainne Vos is closing her down but Hosking has timed it perfectly - she's the winner of the 2016 La Course.

She's caught. The sprint is on.

Marianne Vos is launching the response. Van Dijk clinging on.

Eleon van Dijk has emerged from the tunnel out clear. She's going to try and do it alone.

Hmmm. No sign of Marianne Vos. Ah, there is she is, looming out to the right of the peloton, she escaped that really nasty crash.

Oh my word. Another crash. It's taken out 10 or so riders. The sprint bunch is diminishing.

Here we go, everyone's coming back together and we're going to get our sprint finish. a few more riders are on the deck. It's getting brutal.

Marianne Vos is making moves in the peloton for a sprint finish - it will mean nothing if the breakaway isn't caught though. The gap is back up to 10secs.

Lauren Stephens still leads the race and swings nervously close to the kerb, trying to ride in the smooth concrete between the cobbles and the edge of the road.

The three breakaway riders are slowly being dragged back, the gap has dropped to 8secs.

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There's the bell. Final lap.

Not the time for a crash. There are five riders strewn across the road, including Britain's Dani King.

Two riders touched and went down in the middle of the peloton, bringing a host of others down with them

There are shades of last year's race right now. Anna van der Breggen's late break was chased down too late by the peloton and the front three here have a 10-second gap with less than 10km to go.

History repeating itself?

It's American Lauren Stephens and Amy Pieters up with Lucinda Brand. The latter two are Dutch. This race has only ever been won by women from the Netherlands, so that's pretty ominous.

Lucinda Brand has been lively, as she launches into her second break of the day and this one sticks.

She's taken two riders with her and this could be a potentially race-winning bunch.

All eyes on Dani King now as the Briton launches off the front of the peloton. She's gritting her teeth and getting her dead down, but can't peel away.

She's upped the pace though and might be trying to stretch the peloton to give her Wiggle High5 team-mates Chloe Hosking or Lucy Garner a shot at the sprint.

Audrey Cordon has another sniff at making a break but the door is slammed shut almost as quickly as it begins.

The host broadcaster loves a looming view from around the Obelisk on the Place de la Concorde.

The peloton has settled down into a steady, but sharpish pace. It seems that everyone's happy to let this stick together and let the best sprinter win.

Those could be famous last words, of course.