The gap to Benjamin Thomas and Gougeard is coming down... 18, 17, 16 - make that 12 seconds. They can probably smell the peloton behind them. Ineos are the team at the front at the moment, trying to keep Geraint Thomas out of trouble.

Fabio Jakobsen and poor old Caleb Ewan are the notable sprinters absent from the yellow jersey bunch.

Quinn Simmons is leading the chase now for Trek-Segafredo, riding hard for Mads Pedersen. Wout van Aert will surely figure if there is a bunch sprint for the line, and so will Peter Sagan - he is up there too.

The front two are 24 seconds clear.

Tadej Pogacar's team are at the front of the peloton now. It's hard to know how many specialist sprinters will be at the front of the race if they catch the front two. Mads Pedersen is there, and Dylan Groenewegen is around... but who else, and what will they have left in the tank?

Chaos at the front of the yellow jersey peloton, with Wout van Aert darting off for few seconds.

At the back, one of the specialist sprinters, Dylan Groenewegen, has just got back in touch.

Important to point out that France have not had stage winner on this year's Tour. Thomas and Gougeard are going to give this a real go... they are around 30 seconds clear.

French duo Benjamin Thomas and Alexis Gougeard are now 30 seconds clear. Bora-Hansgrohe are the team leading the chase at the front of the yellow jersey group, containing all the big hitters.

So, the race is on for today's stage... but this could be a pivotal day for Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar in the battle for glory in Paris too.

A reminder that Vingegaard has survived a crash - and badly banging his head - but has lost two key team-mates today - Primoz Roglic who abandoned through injury before the stage began, and then Steven Kruijswijk, who crashed out with what looked like a broken collarbone.

Thomas and Gougeard have got a gap of around 20 seconds over the yellow jersey bunch.... who are a minute up on sprinter Dylan Groenewegen and even further ahead of another fast man, Caleb Ewan.

Benjamin Thomas goes over Cote des Cammazes, ahead of another French rider Alexis Gougeard. They have opened up a gap of around 10 seconds, while the teams behind them decide what they will do next.

That Trek-Segafredo move on the way up that climb dropped another rival fast man - Dylan Groenewegen.

The yellow jersey of Jonas Vingegaard is in the pack. He has got the man in green, Wout van Aert, with him ... but he is a lot more isolated now than he has been for most of the last two weeks.

Trek-Segafredo are setting the pace at the front of the race now. The riders are heading up the category three Cote des Cammazes... sprinters like Caleb Ewan and Fabio Jakobsen have been dropped.

The break is done for the day because, Nils Politt and Mikkel Honore have been caught.

Yes, Van Aert takes the 15 points for being the third man across the line at the intermediate sprint - he was already well ahead in the points category. In all the drama of these crashes, the gap to the front two has come right down - 30 seconds, and falling fast.

Vingegaard is back in the peloton now. One of his remaining team-mates, Wout van Aert, is at the front of the main bunch looking for some points at the intermediate sprint, which is coming up fast...

Jonas Vingegaard is back on his bike but he took a nasty fall there when some wheels touched at the front of the peloton. Another of his Jumbo-Visma team-mates, Tiesj Benoot, also went down.

Another crash, and this time it is the yellow jersey who is off his bike.

Steven Kruijswijk was 13th on the General Classification but more importantly was a key wing-man on the Jumbo-Visma team for race leader Jonas Vingegaard in the mountain stages to come next week... as was Primoz Roglic.

Steven Kruijswijk's race is over. He is on a stretcher and about to be taken away in an ambulance. A broken collarbone, by the looks of things.