Astana's Alexey Lutsenko sprints clear to be the first man over the summit of the Col de Vars, taking 10 king of the mountains points.

Doesn't mean much for the Kazakh but it does mean that Warren Barguil will claim the polka dot jersey at the end of the Tour, as long as he doesn't abandon before the finish line in Paris.

Primoz Roglic and Thomas de Gendt were the only men who stood even a mathematical chance of taking the jersey off him but neither are in the front group today.

Chapeau Barguil - plenty of daring attacking throughout to seize that classification.

Rob Hayles
Former GB cyclist at the Tour de France

Another job well done by Luke Rowe as he slips of the back of the peloton after his day's work.

Rowe is currently the race's Lanterne Rouge - the last man on general classification.

Image source, Reuters

Sicard and Lutsenko have been joined by Darwin Atapuma and Tony Gallopin out front as they near the top of the Col de Vars.

Yesterday's stage winner Primoz Roglic has eased up behind and dropped to the back of the peloton.

AG2R come to the front of the peloton, leading Romain Bardet in front of Chris Froome on the road.

Is an attack imminent? Will they try to go over the top of the Col de Vars and nail it on the descent?

Luke Rowe and Christian Knees are done for Sky as they drop down.

Image source, AFP

Romain Sicard (Direct Energie) and Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) have struck out 1km from the summit of the Col de Vars.

Simon Brotherton
Radio 5 live at the Tour de France

Do you know what's a bit mean? Tomorrow's stage is the longest of the Tour at 222.5km.

Now down to 18 riders at the front of the race on the Col de Vars.

Ben Swift has dropped back, Ireland's Nicolas Roche and wily French veteran Thomas Voeckler still up there.

Approaching 3km to go to the summit of the Col de Vars, the penultimate climb in the Alps in this year's Tour.

'Only' the Izoard remains after it.

Simon Clarke is now getting dropped by the leading group - the Cannondale man needs to just survive and get over this category one climb to try and offer something to Rigoberto Uran later on.

Image source, AFP

Some of the sprinters are now drifting to the back of the peloton as they reach the Col de Vars, just over seven minutes behind that leading group of 22.

Nicolas Edet of Cofidis is the first rider in the front group to try and go solo up the Col de Vars.

Three riders - Durasek, Kozhatayev and Clarke - jump on his wheel and they have a small gap that should be shut down soon.

Shot of Andrew Talansky in the front group - he'll try to stay up there using as little energy as possible to be ready to help Cannondale team-mate Rigoberto Uran on the attack later on.

Simon Clarke is also up there for Cannondale.

Romain Bardet has two AG2R team-mates in Cyril Gautier and Jan Bakelants in the group.

Froome's rivals playing some early cards.

Image source, EPA

Simon Brotherton
Radio 5 live at the Tour de France

Forecast at the top of the Izoard is for 11C.

Image source, EPA

Bora still at the front, driving the tempo with Sky.

The remaining Bora riders must have got some absolute pelters from their sporting directors over race radio for missing the break.

No other reason to ride this hard - they've brought the gap to the front group down to seven minutes.

As soon as the front group hit the climb, Astana's Andrey Grivko is dropped.

Fabio Aru hasn't looked strong enough to win the Tour so far but the loss of climbers Jakob Fuglsang and Dario Cataldo really hasn't helped.

As the front group start to climb the Col de Vars - here's what they can expect near the summit...

Image source, Twitter / @maniel_dorton

So 25 riders have made the front group.

Astana trio Michael Valgren, Andrey Grivko and Bakhtiyar Kozhatayev are up there - can they help Fabio Aru later on? None of them are super climbers. Is the Italian planning a long-range attack?

Otherwise, Britain's Ben Swift has made the jump, as have French veterans Thomas Voeckler and Sylvain Chavanel.

Image source, AFP

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Hard to tell exactly who has made it into the front group of that split but there are still at least three Astana riders up there, plotting something for Fabio Aru later.

The very front group has an advantage of about 16 seconds over their former breakaway pals.

Bora have joined Team Sky on the front of the peloton and are bringing the gap to the front groups down at quite a lick.

They missed the break earlier and are trying to make amends. Perhaps also trying to make up for a quiet Tour in which they lost both their leaders Peter Sagan and Rafal Majka.