The 'real' Didi the Devil is here too by the way, leaping around in trademark style and grimacing as the riders whizz past him. Great to see him again.

We're going to have to wait a while to tick off some of the other regular Tour sights, though. The beautiful Basque Country has bridges and spectacular coastline... but it is somewhat lacking in sunflower fields and giant bales of hay arranged in the shape of bikes.

Image source, EPA

I don't think the peloton wants this race back together just yet - that brings more problems, because it would bring further attacks - they have slowed and the breakaway bunch have stretched their lead back out to 35 seconds or so.

That advantage could still disappear in the blink of an eye, but their day is not done just yet.

The gap has come right down now, and pretty quickly... the front five have seen their lead cut to 20 seconds as the race returns to the Atlantic coast.

They might not be out on their own for too much longer.

Oh dear, our first tumble of this year's Tour. It was Norway's Torstein Traen (Uno-X) who had a taste or tarmac but he is back on his bike, fortunately with no harm done.

The gap to the front five is down to just over a minute now, because the pace of the peloton ramped up before that intermediate sprint.

Wout van Aert wasn't interested in points this time but Peter Sagan had a pop, finishing behind Mads Pedersen but ahead of Jasper Philipsen. Mark Cavendish was up there too.

Pedersen got 10 points for his efforts, while Cav collected seven.

Pascal Eenkhorn takes the sprint, despite the best efforts of birthday boy Simon Guglielmi.

There are still some points left for the main bunch though, so we might see some big hitters go for these...

We've been racing for more than two hours now and it's fair to say that the peloton still have this race completely under control - the gap to the front five has never gone up by very much and it is currently at around one minute 40 seconds.

The focus of the TV coverage is currently very much on the spectacular scenery of this part of the Atlantic coast which tells you that not much is happening on the road at the moment.

There is an intermediate sprint coming up soon but that's all I've got for you in terms of excitement, for now.

Jonas Gregaard was first to attack this time too, from around 500m out, but this time the others had a better plan.

Pascal Eenkhorn - who was French when he was second over Cote de Laukiz but is definitely Dutch now - reacts quickly then bursts away himself, and is too strong for birthday boy Simon Guglielmi who collects one point.

That puts Eenkhorn in the virtual polka-dot jersey for now - he has a total of three points. Gregaard still has two and now Guglielmi has one.

The breakaway bunch are on their way up Cote de San Juan now, with about 700m to go to the top.

Danish rider Jonas Gregaard (Uno-X) was first over the Cote de Laukiz earlier - will he attack again here?

Pascal Eenkhorn (Lotto-Dstny), Lilian Calmejane (Intermarche), Simon Guglielmi (Arkea) and Valentin Ferron (TotalEnergies) will be trying stop Gregaard collecting two more polka-dot points.

He's no Didi the Devil but I'd still give this guy a clap for his effort at the complete Tour de France costume.

An extra point for the red face paint but loses some marks for not applying the same to his arms and legs.

7/10.

Image source, EPA

Back on the road, and not much has changed at the front of the race in the last few kilometres.

Those five breakaway riders are around one minute and 40 seconds clear and, behind them, the pace of the peloton is being set by riders from Jumbo-Visna, Alpecin-Deceuninck and Soudal-Quick Step, who are keeping everything under control.

There is another climb coming up, the category three Cote de San Juan, but this stage probably won't catch light until much nearer the end. That's not a reason for you to go and do something else for the next couple of hours though.

Image source, Tour de France

Image source, EPA

Realistically, today is not the day for the Manx Missile, aka Mark Cavendish, to make history - the route is a little too lumpy - but hopefully we won't have long to wait.

The 38-year-old is racing in his final Tour de France and hopes to say goodbye by breaking the all-time record for stage wins, that he currently shares with Belgian legend Eddy Merckx.

At the moment, they both have 34... will Cav make it to 35?

Image source, EPA

They clearly like their bridges in this part of Basque Country, and they love cycling too... so no prizes for guessing where a lot of the crowd are perched today.

They've got a great view to be honest - maybe it's not too late to get some built on the Champs Elysees, where the Tour definitely needs them for the crowds on the final stage.

They've got three weeks to get it sorted...

British rider Tom Pidcock has the climbing legs to be in the mix at the finish today too, but it is the dangers of descending that he has been talking about this week.

The death of Swiss cyclist Gino Mader in a high-speed crash during a descent at the Tour de Suisse last month has left a cloud over the start of the Tour de France, and Pidcock knows that the same risks remain in this race too.

"Descending is something I love, but someone I race with died descending and it hit home quite hard," he said.

"Risks are involved in cycling. [Serious accidents] don't happen often but it can go wrong and I guess we do what we can to mitigate those risks. But they'll never be gone."

Read the full interview with Tom Pidcock, here.

Image source, EPA

Ah apologies because I claimed Pascal Eenkhorn was French earlier. He's Dutch - I'm afraid you'll have to get used to that!

There are three French riders in the breakaway (pictured) with him though - Lilian Calmejane. Simon Guglielmi and Valentin Ferron - plus Denmark's Jonas Gregaard.

Those five are around one minute 25 seconds clear.

It's Guglielmi's 26th birthday today by the way - sadly for him it is extremely unlikely that he will get to celebrate with a stage win. Hopefully someone buys him a cake instead.

Image source, EPA

Image source, Reuters

There is a LOT more climbing to come in this year's Tour by the way, with eight mountain stages.

As mentioned earlier, defending champion Jonas Vingegaard of Denmark and two-time winner Tadej Pogacar are the clear favourites for this year's race - we might even see them tussle later today.

Pogacar was the man in form earlier this year, winning Paris-Nice and the Tour of Flanders, before breaking his wrist in April.

That's left question marks over the Slovenian's preparations for this race but he insists the rest has done him good - and he did win the time trial and road race titles in his national championships last weekend.

Denmark's Jonas Gregaard fancies the first lot of King of Mountain points, springing out from the breakaway bunch about 500m fron the summit... Dutch rider Pascal Eenkhorn is on his tail, but can't catch him.

Gregaard takes two mountain points towards the polka-dot jersey, Eenkhorn collects one.

The gap to the front five is up to about one minute 30 seconds now as they head up the category three Cote de Laukiz.

It looks a bit muggy out there, but the riders have got plenty of support on the roadside... oh, and on the bridges too. There are Basque flags - the distrinctive Ikurrina - everywhere.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, EPA

All the big-hitters in this year's race will be at the front for the finish today, or at least they will hope to be after getting over Pike Bidea, which has a 13% incline for the final 1km of climbing. Everyone will feel the burn there!

The finish is uphill too, which suits serial stage winner Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel - if they can stay in touch to the end.

Julian Alaphilippe will be trying to drop that pair before then, but it could be the guys going for the General Classification who take over. Two-time Tour winner Tadej Pogacar might want to start by making a statement, but defending champion Jonas Vingegaard will be keeping a close eye on him - those two are the heavy favourites to fight it out again this year.

Vingegaard ended the 2022 race in the yellow jersey, but who will be the first to wear it this year? Home heroes, Pello Bilbao and Mikel Landa would love to give the Basques something to celebrate so watch out for them too.

Image source, Getty Images