Britain's Tom Pidcock and Fred Wright are both in the break.

The catch is made... we now have 32 riders together at the front of the race and they are more than a minute clear of the group including Tour leader Jonas Vingegaard and co.

There is a third group on the road that were distanced pretty early on, still containing 38 riders, and they are another seven minutes back.

A good move this... more than 20 riders have joined Jasper Philipsen, including his lead-out man Mathieu van der Poel, and they are flying - 20 seconds clear of the yellow jersey group, and just 10 seconds behind the eight-man break.

Nils Politt is one of them, so chapeau to him!

The yellow jersey peloton just went through the intermediate sprint, with the man in the green jersey, Jasper Philipsen, first across the line to hoover up a few more points, although most of them went to the escapees.

Philipsen has kept up his speed to burst away, with a few other riders joining him, looking to bridge the gap to the break.

The gap continues to come down, to under 30 seconds now.

Georg Zimmerman (Intermarche-Circus-Wanty), Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal Quick-Step), Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), Matteo Trentin (UAE Emirates, Jack Haig (Bahrain Victorious), Tiesj Benoot (Jumbo-Visma), Warren Barguil (Arkea-Samsic) and Victor Campenaerts (Lotto-Dstny) are the men out front, for now.

Nils Politt is back in touch with the yellow jersey peloton, and the break looks like they are missing him... the gap is down to 40 seconds now, with riders from Israel-Premier Tech, Uno-X and EF Education-EasyPost still doing the legwork at the front to lead the chase.

Brilliant Belgian Wout van Aert pulled out of the Tour before Thursday's stage so he could be with his wife for the birth of their son.

And here is ... Jerome. Very appropriately, he is wearing a white jersey (sort of) which is worn by the best young rider on the Tour (aka Tadej Pogacar for as long as anyone can remember).

Give it 20 years or so and Jerome will be probably be wearing it for real...

Image source, EPA

Nothing is expected to change at the top of the General Classification today, but here's a reminder of where we're at. Jonas Vingegaard has been in the leader's yellow jersey since stage six and has a commanding lead of more than seven minutes over Tadej Pogacar.

General classification after stage 18

1. Jonas Vingegaard (Den/Jumbo-Visma) 72hrs 04mins 39secs

2. Tadej Pogacar (Slo/UAE Team Emirates) +7min 35secs

3. Adam Yates (GB/UAE Team Emirates) +10mins 45secs

4. Carlos Rodriguez Cano (Spa/Ineos Grenadiers) +12mins 1sec

5. Simon Yates (GB/Team Jayco-AlUla) +12mins 19secs

6. Pello Bilbao (Spa/Bahrain Victorious) +12mins 50secs

7. Jai Hindley (Aus/Bora-Hansgrohe) +13mins 50secs

8. Felix Gall (Aut/AG2R) +16mins 11secs

9. Sepp Kuss (US/Jumbo-Visma) +16mins 49secs

10. David Gaudu (Fra/Groupama-FDJ) +17mins 57secs

Oh dear, bad news for Nils Politt. He was in the break, but not anymore.

His chain has broken and his team car isn't up there to help him. He was offered a bike by the neutral car that was following, but they didn't have anything that fitted him.

He's now off the back, on his own.

Image source, EPA

No Moo-vistar riders in the break either, but at least they have some fans on the roadside today (sorry).

Image source, Reuters

Three teams who are not in the break - Israel-Premier Tech, Uno-X and EF Education-EasyPost - are setting the pace in the peloton and trying to reduce the gap, but their effort is not having much effect... the gap is still more than a minute.

Who is in the break, I hear you ask? Here you go...

Georg Zimmerman (Intermarche-Circus-Wanty), Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal Quick-Step), Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), Matteo Trentin (UAE Emirates, Jack Haig (Bahrain Victorious), Nils Politt (Bora-Hansgrohe), Tiesj Benoot (Jumbo-Visma), Warren Barguil (Arkea-Samsic) and, one of yesterday's heroes - Victor Campenaerts (Lotto-Dstny) - who was in the four-man break that stayed clear to the end.

Lots of failed breakaway attempts, funnily enough.

Peter Sagan's had a go at getting away but it didn't stick. Same with Julian Alaphilippe.... but he's just had another push and I think he's cracked it.

Alaphilippe is in a group of nine riders, also including Mads Pedersen, Matteo Trentin and Jack Haig, who escaped in the past few minutes and they have opened up a gap of one minute and eight seconds on the yellow jersey peloton. There's another group of 38 riders about two minutes further back, but I think today's stage has now taken shape.

I spoke to legendary Tour escape artist Jens Voigt a few years ago about the art of the breakaway attempt and he told me: "Nine times out of 10, the long break fails.

"It can be bitter or it can be glorious. But you have got to try it 10 times to make it work once."

It feels like breakaways have even less chance of success now than they did in Voigts' days on the Tour - he rode in 17 editions of the race, with his final ride coming in 2014 - so Thursday's victory by Denmark's Kasper Asgreen really was something to savour.

Image source, Reuters

This is what faces the race today, as the peloton sweeps 172.8km across the Jura Mountains without tackling any major climbs.

With the final straight measuring more than eight kilometres in length, the fast men will be given a hefty lead out unless a strong group in breakaway has taken advantage of some tired legs in the peloton... which, funnily enough, is similar to what happened yesterday.

Image source, Tour de France

Hello there, I bring good news - Paris is in sight... well, kind of. It's roughly 500km away on the map, and the riders have almost 350km of racing before they get there on Sunday.

Lots to look forward to before then, including today. The sprinters who have survived this far in the Tour are already licking their lips and stretching their legs while thinking of glory on the Champs Elysees... but stage 19 gives them another chance of a success.