Britain's Owain Doull, speaking to BBC Sport: "A hard day for everyone. The plan for me and Ian Stannard was to deal with the start, make sure the right break went and position the guys as best we could going into the circuit and we did that.

"It would've been nice to have gone further but that was my main job and anything else would've been a bonus. It's a savage day.

"If you're not on a good day, you're going to be found out pretty quickly."

Two-time cyclocross world champion Mathieu van der Poel has taken road cycling by storm over the past couple of years.

This year he won a thrilling editions of Amstel Gold Race, the Tour of Britain, Dwars door Vlaanderen and Brabantse Pijl.

Can he cap a fine year with a rainbow jersey here?

Dutchman Pieter Weening drops off after a tremendous effort on the front.

Team-mate Mike Teunissen has taken it up in service of contender Mathieu van der Poel.

Stefan Kung and Lawson Craddock are really committed to this attack and have eked out 35 seconds over the peloton.

Ireland's Sam Bennett pulls over and steps off in the pits behind the finish line.

The removal of the two major climbs due to flooding boosted his chances but the sprinter ultimately just didn't have the legs after his exertions in winning two stages at the recent Vuelta.

Rochelle Gilmore
2010 Commonwealth Games champion on BBC TV

Kung and Craddock might as well have a go like this before the proper attacking starts on the last lap.

Britain's Adam Yates is still content to float around the back of the leading group.

Has he got something in store for later?

Lisa Higgins: Proper war of attrition out there, energy sapping stuff as these laps bite hard, shelling very good riders out the back.

Switzerland's Stefan Kung and American Lawson Craddock have attacked off the front of the peloton.

They have a lead of 12 seconds.

Here are the pre-race favourites still in the front group: Peter Sagan, Greg van Avermaet, Mathieu van der Poel, Matteo Trentin, Michael Matthews, Alexander Kristoff, Julian Alaphilippe.

The race kick up the 9.4% gradient on Parliament Street as they race the final 500m to the line.

The peloton are about to start lap five of nine around Harrogate.

Just 91 riders remain. Over half the field have abandoned...

As well as obviously Olympic champion Greg van Avermaet, Belgium still have plenty of cards to play...

It looks like the relay plane had made it back after refuelling and we have live pictures again.

Phew.

Ireland's Sam Bennett is getting dropped out of the back of the peloton, which is being driven on by Italy and Netherlands.

Bennett was an outside bet for today but he looks knackered after two stage wins in the Vuelta.

Confirmation from his Movistar team that Spain's Alejandro Valverde has quit the race.

No back-to-back titles for the 39-year-old.

Luxembourg's Bob Jungels, who won last year's Liege-Bastogne-Liege, has quit.

Reports coming in that defending champion Alejandro Valverde has abandoned.

Britain's Ben Swift has made it back into the leading group on the road.