Postpublished at 50km to go
We move quickly on to the Col de la Croix Montmain.
Summary
Stage 12 sees the race travel 168.8km from Roanne to Belleville-en-Beaujolais
The lumpy terrain and downhill finish should favour the breakaway specialists
Jonas Vingegaard is the overall race leader and wears the yellow jersey
Postpublished at 50km to go
Postpublished at 52km to go
Mathieu van der Poel's attack has taken 16 seconds out of his former breakaway colleagues.
He has Andrey Amador to assist but these two are really going to have to go some here to distance the chasing group.
Postpublished at 58km to go
Guillaume Martin crests the Col de la Casse Froide first with Tobias Halland Johannessen just behind him.
Mathieu van der Poel puts the hammer down on the descent, with Andrey Amador hot on his heels.
Postpublished at 58km to go
Michael Woods and Giulio Ciccone look like they have touched wheels in the yellow jersey group. Nobody wants to taste tarmac particularly on a leg-sapping stage like today.
Postpublished at 60km to go
Image source, Getty ImagesAG2R-Citroen are pushing the pace on the front of the 39-man yellow jersey group.
They are very much riding for Felix Gall who is 16th on GC but stands to make up some serious ground on Mikel Landa, Emanuel Buchmann and Sepp Kuss at the moment.
Postpublished at 62km to go
Thibaut Pinot always looks like he's on the limit but this category three ascent up the Col de la Casse Froide should be extremely comfortable for a man of his talents.
If he wants to win this stage he'll need to make his move on one of the two category two climbs to follow to get rid of some of the faster finishers.
Postpublished at 65km to go
After riding at full throttle for pretty much the opening 70-80km things are a lot more settled now.
The gap between them and the leaders is nearly three minutes and 30 seconds and it looks like the winner of this stage will come from the group of escapees.
Postpublished at 68km to go
The breakaway are sauntering along now and taking on board some snacks prior to the third climb of the day on the category three Col de la Casse Froide, a 5.3km drag at around 6%.
Postpublished at 70km to go
A big if...but if Thibaut Pinot can stay away here he'll give himself a fairly decent chance of jumping inside the top 10 on GC.
Sepp Kuss, who is over six minutes back and his Groupama-FDJ teammate David Gaudu, who is in the yellow jersey group could well be in his sights.
Postpublished at 72km to go
What a glorious spectacle the Tour de France is.
Image source, Getty Images
Image source, Getty Images
Image source, Getty ImagesPostpublished at 75km to go
Julian Alaphilippe and Jasper Stuyven finally make it across to the leading group. What a chase.
Meanwhile, Mads Pedersen takes an uncontested intermediate sprint at Regnie-Durette. That'll be 20 green jersey points.
Postpublished at 78km to go
There are actually 13 riders up the road and it's a pretty handy posse..
Tiesj Benoot (Jumbo-Visma), Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), Andrey Amador (EF Education-EasyPost), Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), Mathieu Van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Guillaume Martin, Ion Izagirre (Cofidis), Ruben Guerreiro, Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar), Dylan Teuns (Israel-PremierTech), Victor Campenaerts (Lotto-Dstny), Tobias Halland Johanessen (Uno-X), Mathieu Burgaudeau (TotalEnergies) have one minute and 40 seconds to the yellow jersey group.
Postpublished at 81km to go
A few shots of Julian Alaphilippe and Jasper Stuyven, who look to be in no man's land in between the break and what's left of the yellow jersey group.
There is a slight descent here though and Alaphilippe is master on the downhill slopes.
Postpublished at 83km to go
The polka-dot jersey group is losing some time here. At last glance nearly six minutes.
Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma), Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-hansgrohe), Louis Meintjes (Intermarche-Circus-Wanty) and Mikel Landa (Bahrain-Victorious) are all in that group and likely to cede time to Thibaut Pinot today.
Postpublished at 86km to go
Thibaut Pinot attacks off the front of the yellow jersey group and bridges across with ease and is followed shortly after by Julian Alaphilippe.
It's Bastille Day tomorrow chaps.
Postpublished at 88km to go
The racing has been fast and super aggressive so far. And it looks like we could just about be ready to establish a break with Andrey Amador, Matteo Jorgenson and Ion Izagirre getting to the front and being joined by Thibaut Pinot, Ruben Guerreiro, Mathieu Burgaudeau and Victor Campenaerts.
Postpublished at 92km to go
This is like watching a big one-day race. Absolutely no let up.
Postpublished at 95km to go
Andrey Amador, Matteo Jorgenson and Ion Izagirre are off in pursuit of the leading three riders.
Postpublished at 100km to go
Image source, Getty ImagesMads Pedersen makes it over as well.
Postpublished at 105km to go
Dylan Teuns and Tiesj Benoot open up a 10-second gap at the front of the race. Nothing really given a long descent is coming.