Welcome to live coverage of stage 19 of the Tour de France - a short but brutal 110km ride from Modane Valfrejus to Alpe d'Huez.

Greipel and Burghardt have been dropped by the leading group. Cunego, Barredo and Frank Schleck have been caught by the peloton. Nicolas Roche has been dropped by the bunch after yesterday's efforts. The Contador group has about 1:15 over the bunch and are closing in on the leaders.

So, it's Contador, Schleck, Evans and Voeckler. The leaders have 1:15 on this group. Back in the bunch, it's Liquigas' Sylvester Szmyd setting the pace for Ivan Basso.

Contador goes again! What an acceleration! Both Frank Schleck and Barredo can't reply. Evans and Voeckler just manage, while Andy Schleck is, of course, right in Contador's wheel.

Now Voeckler gets out of the saddle and bridges the gap. But he's isolated and the race leader is without his Europcar lieutenant Pierre Rolland. It's not Sanchez, it's the orange of Carlos Barredo (Rabobank).

Cadel Evans and Samuel Sanchez manage to join the Contador-Frandy group, but yellow jersey Voeckler doesn't have an answer to this early attack.

Andy Schleck has joined him, as has his teammate Daniel Navarro. Andy has Frank too. What a start to the stage!

ATTACK: Alberto Contador attacks on the Col du Telegraph!! Incredible stuff.

The leaders are onto the Cat.1 Col du Telegraph (11.8km at 7%). Interestingly, Saxo Bank's Chris Anker Sorensen has just attacked from the peloton - perhaps opening things up for Contador later in the stage?

The yellow jersey is not the only jersey up for grabs today: it's really open in the KOM competition with current polka dot jersey Jelle Vanendert still holding a two-point gap over Samuel Sanchez, with yesterday's winner Andy Schleck just two more points further down.

The gap is up to 2:45 so it looks like this one is going to stick.

Those 10 riders joined the Hoogerland group so we now have 14 riding just under a minute ahead of the peloton. They are: Izagirre, Urtasun, Greipel, Iglinskiy, Costa, Gutierrez, Koren, Riblon, Flecha, Pineau, Burghardt, Buffaz, Duque and Hoogerland.

Mark Cavendish (HTC) retained his green jersey despite finishing outside the time cut-off yesterday. Cavendish and half the peloton, a total of 89 riders, finished 35 minutes and 40 seconds after the day's winner, Andy Schleck of Luxembourg. Tour organisers decided to retain the 'gruppetto' in the race and according to regulations, docked Cavendish 20 points in the points classification. That means Cavendish leads Jose Rojas by just 15 points now in the standings.

Vacansoleil's Hoogerland is joined by Mickael Buffaz (Cofidis), Pablo Urtasun (Euskaltel) and Marcus Burghardt (BMC). They have about eight seconds - and there are 10 other riders already in pursuit.

Almost instantly, four riders break clear of the bunch. And it's that man Johnny Hoogerland who leads the way!

Thomas Voeckler of France is expected to surrender, finally, his yellow jersey as the Tour reaches one of its most famous summit finishes - although the plucky Europcar man was meant to lose the maillot jersey back in the Pyrenees and it's been 10 days now, so who knows. Voeckler held on to yellow yesterday with a late rally up the Galibier, and leads stage 18 winner Andy Schleck by 15 seconds, with Frank Schleck in third, 1:08 down.

If riding the Galibier once in one year wasn't enough, race organisers have decided to include the legendary climb for a second time in as many days – on this occasion from the "harder" opposite side. The HC ascent is preceded by the Cat.1 Col du Telegraphe (11.8km at 7%) and followed the 21 hairpin bends of Alpe d'Huez (13.8km at 8%).

Christian Prudhomme, the erstwhile Tour director, waves the flag and they're off!

The remaining 168 riders roll through the neutral zone at the start of today's decisive stage. The sun's out and battle is about to begin...