Into the final kilometre of climbing on the Port de Lers.

Who fancies the 10 KOM points on offer for first over the summit?

Andrey Amador is setting the tempo on the front of the break for now.

Nairo Quintana has made it across to the front group on the road.

The Colombian is now two minutes off the virtual yellow jersey.

Still Deceuninck Quick-Step set the tempo for the peloton.

They will have to think about upping it soon.

Omar Fraile's pace on the front has extended the breakaway's advantage over the peloton to five minutes for the first time today.

This is the upper limit of how much time the peloton would be happy for the break to have.

Will there be a response behind?

Omar Fraile is driving it on at the front in service of Astana team-mate Alexey Lutsenko, who will be looking for the stage win today.

Dan Martin is slowly making contact again. He'll need to somehow try and conserve energy once he gets back on.

It's a very hot day - Simon Yates is dousing himself from neck to toe in water.

And just as I typed that, Dan Martin has been dropped by the leading group again.

Dan Martin has dragged a group of eight riders across to the leaders on the front.

So that makes it 16 riders out front, with a nine-man group that includes Nairo Quintana needing to make up 18 seconds to join them.

Andrew Harvey: This stage will claim a few victims I reckon, a lot of riders on the limit. If the break makes it, it's hard to look past Simon Yates for the win, seems to be on great form. Quick Step and Ineos won't let Quintana claw back any time though.

Although Enric Mas dropping back is damaging for Julian Alaphilippe, his other team-mates are still looking strong.

Italian sprinter Elia Viviani is driving the peloton on a category one climb, suggesting Mas is ill, rather than this climb is that tough to drop such a gifted climber.

The gap to the front group of eight has gone out to 4:25 though.

Simon Yates has really ignited the race on the Port de Lers.

A mad scramble to try and get into the front group or at least close enough to make contact on the descent.

There is just over 5km to go to the summit.

The breakaway has broken into three groups now.

A leading group of eight, including Simon Yates and Romain Bardet.

They lead a group of 11 chasers, including Nairo Quintana, by 26 seconds.

A group of 15, including Vincenzo Nibali, are even further back, their chances of contending for the stage getting slimmer by the minute.

This is potentially key.

Enric Mas, who started the day 10th on GC and is a vital support rider for Julian Alaphilippe in the mountains, is dropping back.

Illness perhaps? Deceuninck Quick-Step are still setting the tempo on the front of the peloton.

Some big names are getting dropped after that Simon Yates attack.

Vincenzo Nibali and Ilnur Zakarin slip back.

Back down the road, Peter Sagan and Tim Wellens are being shot off the back of the peloton.

Britain's Simon Yates already has a stage win in this year's Tour and fancies another.

The Mitchelton-Scott rider skips away from the rest of the break.

Several riders start to try and bridge across.

The front of the break are now on the lower slopes of the category one Port de Lers.

A testing 11.4km climb with an average 7% gradient.

If you don't know much about FDJ director Marc Madiot, this video of him celebrating Thibaut Pinot's victory yesterday should suffice...

Nils Politt isn't in the break to make friends.

The Katush-Alpecin rider puts in a dig off the front and forces others to react.

It's splintering a bit.

Marc Selby: Quite a rubbish breakaway that in terms of rider talent, don’t you think?

Vincenzo Nibali? Never heard of him, mate. Ahem.

The breakaway is all back together now. I don't think that was so much an attack as a natural splintering as riders who were up near the front for the intermediate sprint found themselves staying clear on a bit of a descent.

So the 36 riders in the front now lead the peloton by 3:35 with 82km left to race.

That gap has gone up by a minute over the last 10km or so. How worried will Ineos and Quick-Step be?

1. Michael Matthews - 20 pts
2. Nils Politt - 17
3. Damiano Caruso - 15
4. Julien Bernard - 13
5. Pello Bilbao - 11
6. Marc Soler - 10
7. Anthony Perez - 9
8. Tony Gallopin - 8
9. Andrey Amador - 7
10. Patrick Konrad - 6
11. Giulio Ciccone - 5
12. Matthias Frank - 4
13. Jesus Herrada - 3
14. Nairo Quintana - 2
15. Sebastien Reichenbach - 1

Movistar riders Andrey Amador and Marc Soler have made it into the front group.

Are they setting something up for Nairo Quintana in the group behind? Or is it purely accidental that they've ended up this side of the split.

With Movistar, you never know. Trying to make sense of their tactics (or lack thereof) is harder than riding up Ventoux on a unicycle.