Welcome to live coverage of stage seven from Le Mans to Chateauroux, a pancake-flat 218km slog into the centre of France which, unlike its start town (thankfully), won't go on for 24 hours.

The second peloton of 80-odd riders crosses the finish line a huge 3:06 off the pace. Terrible news for Garmin's Ryder Hesjedal...

Cav takes the win, with Petacchi taking second and Greipel third. That was tight. Feillu takes fourth.

Greipel goes on the left, Feillu takes his wheel... but Cav looks good, Petacchi on his wheel.

Goss hands over to Renshaw, with Cav perfectly poised.

Gilbert is working for Greipel. Feillu is there too... and Petacchi.

Eisel pulls off, leaving Goss, Martin and Renshaw with Cav...

HTC in one long line as the train leaves the station about to deliver Cav to his destination...

It will be interesting to see Greipel take on Cavendish in a flat sprint - finally settle an old war of words...

Greipel, Hushovd, Cavendish, Petacchi, Rojas and Galimzaynov are all in this leading group. Not sure about Bozic and Feillu.

A big right bend looks very dangerous as the peloton has to split and pass through myriad pieces of road furniture.

It will be interesting to see if Leopard Trek try anything today, or if their pace setting is just tactical. Maybe Cancellara will go for a long one?

Another stop for Levi Leipheimer, who punctures and needs to get a wheel change from the neutral Mavic car. Already in the second group, he'll lose a lot of time today...

So, both Boasson Hagen and Farrar won't be able to double up today - they're stuck in that second group. On the front, the peloton is really stretching out, with HTC doing all the pace setting.

The yellow jersey group goes under the 10km-to-go banner. The chasing group follows at 1:40. Garmin actually have both Farrar and Hesjedal in that second group.

Game over for the breakaway. Now there will be a slight lull until the finish. It remains to be seen if the second group of 80 riders can make it back to the peloton. It's filled with Sky and Europcar riders. Meanwhile, HTC , Garmin and Leopard Trek, as well as Evans and his BMC boys, seem to be ok and are in the front peloton.

Now Delage has a pop, but again it's all too little too late. Just 10 seconds now back to the peloton. A further 1:54 back is the second pack, which includes the polka dot jersey Hoogerland, all those Sky riders, Popovych, Horner and Leipheimer of RadioShack, and a cluster of other big names. But the likes of Contador, Cavendish and the Schlecks are all ok.

The four leaders are arguing up front. Delage is on the front pedalling like there's no tomorrow, then gesticulates for Urtasan to pull through. The Spaniard does so, but with a shake of the head: he knows that the bunch is about to sweep them up. Meersman goes on the attack, but it's rather halfhearted and won't last.

Once again, a reminded that Bradley Wiggins has crashed out of the Tour with a suspected broken collarbone.

The main peloton is 30 seconds behind the leaders and around 1:50 ahead of the chasing peloton. It looks like it will all come back together, but that crash has changed the whole outlook of the race.

The second peloton is pretty big - almost 100 riders in fact.