Tour de London

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

157km - The 19 have been caught but the leading nine are persisting and are 50 seconds ahead of the main bunch.

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

151km - At the first Intermediate Sprint at La-Fare-Les-Oliviers it was Bennati from Nuyens and Fedrigo with the peloton at 1:20.

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

150km - Christophe Moreau, sixth on GC, has crashed but is now back on his bike.

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

147km - This looks to be the break of the day, they have an advantage of 1:40 as Moreau rejoins the peloton.

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

144km - At the summit of the fourth category Côte de Calissanne, Siutsou crossed ahead of Fedrigo and Nuyens. That is the only climb of the day.

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

140km - The escape group is: David ARROYO (Caisse d'Epargne) 19th @ 7:33 Kanstantsin SIUTSOU (Barloworld) 24th @ 9:00 Jens VOIGT (CSC) 31st @ 13:59 Sylvain CHAVANEL (Cofidis) 33rd @ 16:52 Benoît VAUGRENARD (FDJ) 90th @ 1:03:52 Daniele BENNATI (Lampre) 103rd @ 1:14:14 Pierrick FEDRIGO (Bouygues Telecom) 116th @ 1:21:38 Heinrich HAUSSLER (Gerolsteiner) 137th @ 1:29:49 Nick NUYENS (Cofidis) 159th @ 1:38:25

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

130km - The Rabobank team of yellow jersey Michael Rasmussen are keeping a lid on things with Arroyo less than eight minutes behind. Will anyone chase? Quickstep have three stage wins and Tom Boonen's pursuit of the green jersey will be helped if only 10th place is up for grabs. It really depends on whether Credit Agricole are committed to help Thor Hushovd gain another stage and whether Milram believe Erik Zabel has the legs. Robbie Hunter's Barloworld team have a man in the escape as do Sébastien Chavanel's FDJ squad.

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

125km - The average speed for the first hour was a staggering 50.8km/h. Milram are working for Zabel along with Predictor-Lotto and Euskaltel - for whom, no-one knows - and the gap is down to 1:20.

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

120km - Sylvain Calzati has abandoned so AG2R are down to eight riders.

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

115km - Six of the leaders have been caught with a lot of teams desperate to be involved at the finish. Bennati, Chavanel and Vaugrenard are persisting.

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

110km - Garcia-Acosta, Arvesen, Zubeldia, Ballan, Voeckler, Poitschke, Rinero and Ventoso are now looking to get across to the three leaders who are 28 seconds ahead.

[Greg_Dyke]

where's westy ???

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

90km - The escape group have a two minute lead: Dmitriy FOFONOV (Credit Agricole) 40th @ 28:10 Fabian WEGMANN (Gerolsteiner) 55th @ 37:32 Xavier FLORENCIO (Bouygues Telecom) 63rd @ 44:55 Philippe GILBERT (FDJ) 107th @ 1:15:43

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

86km - Florencio wins the second intermediate sprint at Arles and Saunier Duval's flying Scot David Millar is in hot pursuit just 16 seconds behind.

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

84km - Millar makes it a five-man lead group as the lead over the peloton stretches to over four minutes.

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

80km - As the gap stretches to five minutes, we will give you a rundown on the credentials of the leading quintet over the next few kilometres.

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

70km - Millar finished 59th overall last year just a few weeks after returning to cycling following a two-year ban for admitting to the use of EPO in 2001 and 2003. The Malta-born Scot was stripped of his 2003 world time trial championship rainbow jersey because of the admission. He was involved in a breakaway on the opening road stage and stands 101st on GC. The leaders are 6:51 ahead of the peloton as for some strange reason Astana really inflict the pain on the front of the peloton.

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

69km - Igor Anton of Euskaltel has abandoned as Astana's pace and some crosswinds cause a split in the peloton.

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

65km - Moreau, sixth on GC, is in that second group. The French veteran crashed earlier in the stage.

[NotTheRealSteveWest]

63km - Moreau has just two team-mates with him and has lost 27 seconds on the peloton with Astana still doing the damage.