Stage 9: Nantua - Chambery, 181.5km
Rigoberto Uran wins photo finish
Chris Froome retains yellow jersey
Porte crashes heavily on Mont du Chat descent
Thomas out of Tour after crash on descent
There are five together powering down the slopes of the Grand Colombier.
Warren Barguil, Tiejs Benoot, Alexis Vuillermoz, Primoz Roglic and Bauke Mollema are the men looking to force the pace.
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Great, great work
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First over the Grand Colombier?
Warren Barguil, who collects 20 points, and then Tiejs Benoot, who claims 15 points.
Alexis Vuillermoz came over third 20 seconds back.
Michal Kwiatkowski, Mikel Landa and Mikel Nieve are with team-mate Chris Froome in the yellow jersey group.
Some of the other GC men - Nairo Quintana, Dan Martin - aren't quite so well supported.
Image source, Getty ImagesYou will be able to hear live commentary of the remainder of this stage from 14:00 BST with Simon Brotherton and Rob Hayles.
Why are we starting early? Because excitement is off the scale.
By the way, there are 90km left in this stage.
The riders are at various points on the slopes of the Grand Colombier.
After the descent down that there is a ride along the valley with feed station and intermediate sprint before we hit a cat four climb and then the ominous Mont du Chat.
Looks fairly bright at the moment.
Roght at the front, virtual leader Alexis Vuillermoz has been dropped, leaving Warren Barguil and Tiesj Benoot out front.
There are various small groups chasing them up the road before you get to the yellow jersey group, a good six minutes down the road. All the supposed main GC contenders are in that group - heads down, trying to make sense of the last half hour.
It's a half hour that saw the stage blown open by a series of attacks from AG2R - and saw Geraint Thomas crash out.
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Nick: No.......Poor @GeraintThomas86, external crashes, so unlucky! Hope everything is ok with the injury
Alberto Contador goes down now - but on a climb not a descent after someone clips him. He is not happy but he is up and racing.
Le Tour data shows how Romain Bardet's attack caught Sky on the hop - and forced Chris Froome to respond.
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Apparently Simon Yates's dad rides for this club.
I wonder if they are trying to reel in multiple attacks from AG2R riders?
Image source, BBC SportSplits are starting to appear all over the place.
There are four riders out at the front. AG2R have Alexis Vuillermoz in that group and he is the new leader of the race on the road, with Colombia's Carlos Betancur (who was in virtual yellow until recently) labouring a little way down the slopes of the Grand Colombier.
Betancur is one of 17 about 2.30 back, while the yellow jersey group - minus Geraint Thomas - are six minutes back.
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Poor old G, who of course earlier this year had to withdraw from the Giro after a heavy crash.
Yep, Geraint Thomas is out of the Tour de France after the crash he suffered coming down the Col de la Biche.
In an ambulance, apparently with a broken collarbone.
Image source, Getty ImagesWhile trying to ensure that I at least sort of knew what I was talking about coming into this stage, I read somewhere that parts of the Col du Grand Colombier that the climbers will go up today has a gradient of 22% - the steepest in the race.
That is brutal. Steeper than I've ever gone up (but possibly not down, although that;s another story).
Just what does it feel like to climb that sort of gradient? What message do the legs send to the brain? What gear do you use?
The seven that broke away some time ago from the original breakaway of almost 40 riders still have a lead of more than six minutes from the yellow jersey group, which in turn has broken off from what remains of the peloton, and are on their way up the Grand Colombier.
Following?
Waiting for an update on Geraint Thomas after his crash a little while ago.
My apologies - Alberto Contador is not part of the group that went off the front of the peloton.
That group has sort of come together a little - AG2R leader Romain Bardet has four riders with him. There is Chris Froome plus a few Team Sky team-mates, Simon Yates...plus a few others.
Image source, EPAThere are three Team Sky riders with the group that has attacked off the front of the peloton. Chris Froome is not one of them.
Froome is a little way back with Simon Yates and Richie Porte.