The race is almost into France. The riders are in the south east corner of Luxembourg.

Adam Hansen is suddenly on his own. Has he gone off in pursuit of his Lotto-Soudal team-mate? Or is he heading back to the peloton? Nils Politt has already been swallowed up.

Image source, AFP

Rob Hayles
Former GB cyclist on Radio 5 live sports extra

It’s cross-tail wind at the moment which will be helping these riders stay clear. These conditions on these rolling roads, it’s helping.

The three men who bridged the gap from the peloton are having a dig off the front of the escaped group of nine.

Thomas De Gendt is again the chief instigator. He is defintely going for a long one here. Can the Frenchmen Lilian Calmejane and Pierre-Luc Perichon stick with him?

This could be interesting, Romain Hardy has also joined in the fun. That means we have two Fortuneo riders (Perichon and Hardy) in the leading group.

Here's a great stat for you which I'm shamelessly 'borrowing' from Le Tour's website:

Sylvain Chavanel (Direct Energie), is riding in a record-equaling 17th Tour de France and is competing in his 323rd stage today.

That puts him one ahead of Belgium's Guy Nulens who took part in 322 stages and the Frenchman moves into sixth position in this classification led by Joop Zoetemelk with 357 days of racing at the Tour.

The number of Stuart O'Grady (324) is in sight for Chavanel!

The other two riders who bridged across the gap to the escaped six are Lilian Calmejane of Direct Energie and Pierre-Louis Perichon of Fortuneo.

The dangers of commentating on cycling races right there. One minute the break looks to have zero chance, The next, they get a bit of momentum and it's all back on again.

The nine out front are strung out like a time trial squad, each taking their turn to push the pace on. And the lead builds up towards 80 seconds.

Rob Hayles
Former GB cyclist on Radio 5 live sports extra

This is very interesting now because we’ve got Adam Hansen, who’s been in the break from the word go, he’s now got on the front and straight away he’s put the hammer down and really injected some pace into this group. This is a lot harder now for the peloton to bring this group back because we’ve got at least two riders who are willing to absolutely bury themselves and lead this group.

Image source, AFP

The trio have caught the six, to make a leading group of nine.

Thomas De Gendt rode straight up to his team-mate Adam Hansen and said something that made the Australian push a little harder on his pedals.

Could this be a canny move by the Lotto boys? Hansen can now bury himself for the next 50km, leaving De Gendt to tackle the climb to the finish.

The peloton is aware of the danger though. The lead is still only one minute.

Rob Hayles
Former GB cyclist on Radio 5 live sports extra

"The problem for these guys is even if they do make it to the bottom of the climb and get themselves to inside the 2km to go, they’ll need a good chunk of time.

"If it was a flat stage, 30 seconds you’d say that’s it and they’d be done and dusted but because we’ve got this ascent, even if it’s not overly steep, if you’ve got any kind of fatigue in the legs, once you hit the climb you’ll start to lose time hand over fist."

Image source, EPA

Perhaps bored with the pedestrian pace of the peloton, three riders have made a break.

Lotto Soudal's Thomas De Gendt, who was among the riders who tried to go out early on, is among them.

Team Sky's defending champion Chris Froome has had his say on the run-in. "It's going to be quite a tricky finish. The last 1.5km is uphill and that will suit Philippe Gilbert and Peter Sagan.

"It's definitely going to be a stressful one with general classification guys and some of the sprinters in the mix."

It's taken me a while to get them to nail their colours to the mast but here we go:

Rob Hayles - Michael Matthews - his team have already shown their intention by sending a man up there early on.

Simon Brotherton - Peter Sagan - this course is just his sort of terrain, and he's got a proven record on this sort of finish.

Eurosport commentator Rob Hatch - Peter Sagan is a big favourite for today, but don't rule out Greg Van Avermaet, Philippe Gilbert and Oliver Naesen.

Will G still be in yellow? All three say yes! #bbccycling

The pace has been lifted a little in the peloton and the leaders are just a minute clear with around 60km remaining.

Simon Brotherton
Radio 5 live sports extra commentator

Understatement of the Tour from Geraint when asked what was going through his head during the crash yesterday and he said: “Well I was thinking to myself ‘this is not ideal’”.

A few more selections from you on twitter #bbccycling

Christopher Selby: "I'm going for Team Sky's Michal Kwiatowski. Had the better of Sagan twice this year in the Classics will look for another one."

Matt: "Ben Swift! Got a really good feeling about him for the Tour this year."

Today's stage has just 70km left to run. Geraint Thomas has been largely anonymous today, despite clearly standing out from his Team Sky team-mates who are all in white for this year's race.

I think once the race heats up with around 20km remaining he will come to the fore as he tries to stay in yellow.

"I would imagine Geraint would be disappointed to lose the yellow jersey today," says Rob Hayles on commentary.

Image source, AFP

Simon Brotherton
Radio 5 live sports extra commentator

The sun’s shining on TdF after two miserable days weather-wise. It’s much more pleasant, but not really shorts weather.

I've just realised I didn't put my prediction out there.

I'm going for Philippe Gilbert. The Belgian was born in today's starting town of Verviers so he'll be super-motivated. He won his one and only Tour stage six years ago.

And I reckon Geraint Thomas will be up there and holding on to the yellow jersey for another day. The key for him is strengthening his lead over someone like Marcel Kittel because a sprint finish is expected on Tuesday.

If Kittel were to win tomorrow he would pick up 10 bonus seconds and he is currently only six behind Geraint.

I've told you mine, now tell me yours.

#bbccycling

Rob Hayles and Simon Brotherton have been discussing on BBC Radio 5 live Sports Extra the right time for riders to relieve themselves during the race.

"You can be fined for misjudging - incorrect comportment in public," says Simon.

"The problem is, you can be on a country road with no one there and once you’ve started it’s very difficult to stop," Rob explains.

The six out front are all back together again. Nathan Brown and Nils Politt both sitting up and waiting for Adam Hansen, Romain Sicard, Frederik Backaert and Romain Hardy to catch up.

The lead is hovering around the two minutes, 30 second mark as the race weaves its way due south through Luxembourg before the race enters France for the first time and a finish in Longwy.

Image source, AFP