Welcome to live coverage of stage nine of the Tour de France, a 41.5km individual time trial from Arc en Senans to Besancons. With Britain's Bradley Wiggins and Australian Cadel Evans separated by just 10 seconds, this will give us a better idea of who the major favourite for this year's Tour de France crown really is.

Team Sky's Edvald Boasson Hagen crosses the first check point a huge one minute and 21 seconds down. The Norwegian is taking it easy today, knowing he will be required to work hard for the cause for the next fortnight.

Yesterday's winner Thibaut Pinot is on the rollers while listening to his iPod. The French youngster will start his ITT at 15:03 UK time.

Astana's Andriy Grivko, the Ukraine national time trial champion, sets the fifth best time at the finish, 42 seconds down on leader Martin.

Thomas Voeckler's face is a picture of pain as he crosses the fist checkpoint 53 seconds down on Martin in 16th place. The French veteran made that climb look like Alpe d'Huez.

Team Sky directeur sportif Sean Yates was typically bullish yesterday when talking about the ITT. "Tomorrow is the race of truth and the truth will be told," he said, enigmatically.

Astana's Alexandre Vinokourov is seventh fastest at the first check, 31 seconds down on Martin. The Kazakh veteran has had a tricky final Tour - but will hope to win a stage after Tuesday's rest day.

King of the mountains: after his strong ride yesterday, Swede Frederik Kessiakoff (Astana) moves one point about Sky's Chris Froome in the polka dot standings. Kessiakoff apparently has his own brand of coffee called... Kessiacoffee.

Tony Martin maybe leading, but he's not happy. Here's what he said at the finish: "I had bad luck again. For four or five Ks I had a flat tyre again. I am so disappointed. For the whole race I try and remain focused and keep fighting. But I have no luck. I could feel my wrist every hole I hit. I have pain and today I rode without the protection. I will decide tomorrow if I continue the race."

Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) is down the ramp. He's had a disappointing Tour after the highs of last year, when he wore the yellow jersey for 10 memorable days. The French veteran has been struggling with a knee injury, but thinks he's through the worst of it.

Delicous stat/fact from Infostrada sports: The fastest individual time trial in the Tour that was over 40km was in 2003. David Millar raced 49km in 54 minutes and 5 seconds, giving him an average speed of 54.361 km/h. Converted to today's stage, that would mean an time of 45 minutes and 48 seconds, almost 8 minutes faster than the current fastest time. Of course, it wasn't as hilly a course as this one...

Jens Voigt rides into provisional second place on the leader board: the German completes the 41.5km course 28 seconds down on his compatriot Tony Martin. The RadioShack veteran bettered Lieuwe Westra's third-place time by just one second.

A reminder of the overall standings: after nine days in the saddle, the top five are separated by under one minute. Team Sky's Brad Wiggins leads Cadel Evans (BMC) by 10 seconds, with Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas) in third 16 seconds down. Denis Menchov is fourth at 54 seconds, and Haimar Zubeldia (RadioShack) is fifth at 59. Sky's Chris Froome would be in second had he not punctured in the opening stage. Instead, Wiggins's compatriot is in sixth, 1:32 down.

Voigt builds on his fine ride, setting the second fastest time at the second check point. The RadioShack veteran is 13 seconds down on compatriot Tony Martin at Avanne-Aveney, so we have two Germans at the top of the first two time checks.

Yes, Tony Martin picked up a puncture in the first section of that ITT - but still finished 29 seconds ahead of Westra. If he loses by under 20 seconds today, that will be so harsh for the German: two punctures in two time trials, plus a fractured scaphoid in between.

RadioShack veteran Jens Voigt is having a good day: the German has just come through the first check nine seconds down on Tony Martin to set the second best time so far.

France's Jeremy Roy set the third best time at the second check, and then kept up the momentum to come home in third place at the finish, 36 seconds down on leader Tony Martin. Roy attacked yesterday to pave the way for his team-mate Thihaut Pinot, who took a memorable stage win for Marc Madio's FDJ-BigMat squad.

There are 101.5km of time trials in this year's Tour. Everyone goes on about it being an ITT-heavy course, but since 1977 there have been only four editions with fewer time trial kilometers than the 2012 Tour: 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011.

Not only did Tony Martin ride that ITT with a fractured bone in his wrist, he also reportedly rode a bit with a flat tyre. More on that later.

It remains to be seen if, a) that is enough for Martin to take the win today, and b) if that will be his last action in this year's race. His team doctor has recommended he withdraw from the race today in order to recover properly from his fractured scaphoid in time for the Olympic Games.

Time trial world champion Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) has completed the course in a time of 53:40. That's 29 seconds faster than Lieuwe Westra. The German rode at an average speed of 46.4km/h over the hilly course.

Jens Voigt, the oldest man in the peloton, is down the ramp to start his time trial. The German was in the break yesterday.