Wow, Tim Declercq just put in one heck of an effort to try to get his Soudal-Quick Step teammate Julian Alaphilippe across to the break.

We are on the slopes of Col de Saisies and here's a full list of the men in this break, starting with the man in the polka-dot jersey, Italy's Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) and Danish teammate Mads Pedersen.

Ciccone's chief rival for the King of the Mountains' category, American rider Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) is also there along with Slovenia's Luca Mezgec (Jayco-AIUla) and another Dane Jonas Gregaard (Uno-X).

The gap is coming down, though. It was up to 38 seconds but is currently hovering around 25 seconds... lots of riders are tearing off the front of the peloton to try to bridge the gap.

Mads Pedersen is also in this group of five riders with Ciccone and Powless who have gone clear. The gap is up to 30 seconds, and the race will soon be heading up the first of today's four climbs, the category one Col de Saises.

Ah, here's another attempt at a break and it is the specialist mountain men who are going for it - Giulio Ciccone and Neilson Powless are among them.

There has been a split in the peloton - Vingegaard and Pogacar are in the first group but Britain's Adam Yates, third overall, was briefly separated... he wasn't the only UAE rider to be caught out, but they are all back together again now.

The peloton is back together again - no-one has escaped yet.

Magnus Cort and Valentin Madouas got clear before six - no make that seven - riders formed a chase group off the front of the peloton to try to join them.

It's all a bit frantic, and will be until the breakaway is properly formed.

It's a huge day in the race for yellow but also a massive one for the men chasing mountain points.

Italy's Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) is the man wearing the polka dot jersey at present as leader of the King of the Mountains category, and he is five points clear of America rider Neilson Powless (EF Education-Easypost) after taking the maximum five points available in Tuesday's time trial.

There are a maximum of 45 points available today, over those four climbs... so all to play for.

The flag drops and the racing starts for real. There are immediately attacks from riders trying to get off the front, who fancy a long breakaway.

Today takes in more than 5,400m of climbing and hits its high point at an altitude of 2,304m on the monster that is the Col de Loze.

The gruelling Alpine climb, with brutal ramps of more than 20% on its most punishing section, has only featured once previously in the Tour when Miguel Angel Lopez put 15 seconds into Primoz Roglic and 30 into Tadej Pogacar in 2020.

From there a narrow route takes the riders towards the altiport at Courchevel, with the finish an 18% ramp, bearing a striking resemblance to the crawl to the line at Peyragudes on stage 17 last year.

Image source, Tour de France

the riders have just started rolling through the neutral zone before today's stage officially starts. It gets a lot harder from here...

Yes, hello and welcome to stage 17 of the Tour de France. It's the Queen Stage, so called because it's seen as the most difficult day of the race.

Perfect for Pog, then? We shall see...

Image source, EPA

This year's Tour de France always looked like being a race to Paris between defending champion Jonas Vingegaard and two-time winner Tadej Pogacar, but have we just witnessed the decisive blow in the battle for the yellow jersey?

Vingegaard's devastating display in Tuesday's individual time trial extended his lead over Pogacar in the General Classification from 10 seconds to one minute and 48 seconds.

There is still time for the Slovenian to respond, and he is certainly capable of a special ride - but he needs something spectacular now, ideally today as the race returns to the high mountains.

Now or never? Not quite, but the pressure is all on Pogacar now.