Right, expect the racing to crank up now as the riders are about to hit the slops of the Col de Romme.

It's a first category climb - 8.8km at an average 8.9% gradient.

Image source, La Course

UnitedHealthcare have joined Boels-Dolmans on the front and cut into the advantage of the break, which is down to 2'12'' with 40km remaining.

Which is a bit odd - given that their team-mate Leah Thomas is in the four-woman break up the road.

French former world champion Pauline Ferrand-Prevot has abandoned the race, not clear why yet.

That reduces the options for her Canyon SRAM team.

Boels-Dolmans are still committing their full team to the front but the gap to the breakaway has gone out to 2'24'' on the sole properly flat section of the course.

Australia's Shara Gillow and Britain's Anna Christian are the two chasers in between the break and the peloton.

Riejanne Markus had tried to counter-attack but now sits up and will join the chasing peloton.

Boels-Dolmans are laying it down on the front of the chasing pack. The Dutch outfit are probably the strongest team in the race, containing reigning world champion Chantal Blaak and Olympic champion Anna van der Breggen.

Mitchelton-Scott of course have the favourite Annemiek van Vleuten and Amanda Spratt, who finished third in the Giro Rosa on Sunday.

For now, they can't make any dent in the lead of the breakaway, which is sticking at two minutes.

And just as I typed that, Anna Christian has been dropped by the rest of the breakaway, who cracked up the pace on the descent.

So we have Leah Kirchmann, Lotta Lepisto, Leah Thomas and Malgorzata Jasinska out front, with a lead of almost two minutes over the peloton.

Lizzie Deignan may be missing from this year's event as she is expecting her first child in September but there are plenty of Britons in the race.

Dani Rowe has had a fine season and is perhaps an outside shout for victory. She's usually better on punchy climbs than the long drags on this stage but if she can get over them, she could well contend the finish.

Elsewhere, Anna Christian is currently in the break, while compatriots Hannah Payton and Elizabeth Holden are also here for the Trek-Drops team.

Others to look out for: Elinor Barker, Grace Garner, Lucy Garner, Alice Cobb, Emma Grant, and Elizabeth Banks.

However, others in the women's peloton acknowledge La Course is a well-run race and gives a rare opportunity to race over big climbs, usually reserved for the Giro Rosa.

"I think it's a beautiful one-day race and it's unique for the women's calendar," said defending champion Annemiek van Vleuten.

"I don't like a lot of the negativity around it. For sure we would like to have four days and a finish on the Champs-Elysees for the sprinters, but we have to be realistic.

"We don't have another one-day race like this with so much climbing and with these epic climbs."

Many feel La Course has been a bit of an afterthought, with former world champion Lizzie Deignan telling BBC Sport she was disappointed to see the race return to a single day this year.

"La Course reverting to a one day race is a shame, as in some ways that is the opposite of progress. However the second stage last year in Marseille was not a success and in my opinion if you are going to do something then it is only worth doing it properly," she said.

"La Course started as a criterium in Paris and it felt very much like a token gesture. For teams and sponsors it gave us a platform for very valuable and needed publicity, however as a professional athlete it didn't serve as a sufficient challenge.

"The change to a full distance stage was very welcome and I think a real success, most teams approached the race like a one-day race despite the additional stage in Marseille.

"Marseille was an experiment which didn't work out - La Course being a one day race in 2018 is a reflection of the failure of the Marseille stage in 2017, going forwards I hope there will be further stages added."

So after around 50km of racing, the five-woman breakaway have an advantage of 40 seconds.

FDJ's Shara Gillow has launched a counter-attack and the Australian is trying to bridge across.

It could well be an all-Dutch battle for the win today.

Defending champion Annemiek van Vleuten is probably the overall favourite. She has had an incredibly spell of domination over the last year, capped by winning the Giro Rosa - the most prestigious women's stage race - on Sunday.

Many of the riders are coming off the Giro Rosa - not really being helped by the scheduling there - but how much will it have taken out of Van Vleuten's legs?

If she is fatigued, compatriot Anna van der Breggen has had a fine spring and could well seize the chance.

A five-rider breakaway have about 35 seconds on the chasing bunch.

They are: Leah Kirchmann, Leah Thomas, Anna Christian, Lotta Lepisto and Malgorzata Jasinska.

The riders are over the Col de Bluffy and approaching the summit of the category two Cote de Saint-Jean-de-Sixt (5.5km at 4.9 per cent).

Indeed there was some drama from the off when the racing got underway about an hour ago.

There was a crash that took down a big group of riders but fortunately everyone got up and caught back on.

Sunweb then put in a dig but the race came back together by 13km in.

Here is what the 112 riders from 20 teams are tackling.

The route includes four categorised climbs, including the particularly testing Col de Romme and Col de la Colombiere before descending to the finish in Le Grand-Bornand.

At just 112.5km, compared to the 159km of the men's stage, expect the racing to be aggressive throughout.

Image source, La Course

Welcome to live coverage of La Course.

For those not familiar - it's a women's one-day race put on by Tour de France organisers ASO.

It started in 2014, with its first three editions a criterium around Paris before the final stage of the men's Tour before moving to a two-day event, with mixed results, last year.

It's back as a one-day race this year, but is now a longer mountain stage, using a large part of the route that the men's peloton will race in stage 10 of the Tour later today.

Here we go...