Welcome to live coverage of stage 18 of the Tour de France, a 222.5km trek from Blagnac near Toulouse to Brive-la-Gaillarde - a chance for the sprinters to return to the fold to test their legs before the Champs Elysees on Sunday.

The leaders roll through the intermediate sprint at Cahors. Kris Boeckmans (Vacansoleil) takes it ahead of Jeremy Roy (FDJ). If it goes to a sprint finish between these 16 riders today in Brive then Boeckmans will be one to watch - remember that second win for Andre Greipel 10 days ago? Boeckmans was the rider who got into the Lotto chain but was derailed after his chain snapped.

Yesterday, Swiss BMC rider Michael Schar was run over by the doctor's car and sustained cuts and bruises during the 17th stage of the Tour de France. The incident occurred on the ascent to the Port de Bales 110 kms into the stage, Tour organisers said. "Schar has minor cuts on his right knee and an elbow injury that will need further evaluation," team doctor Max Testa was quoted as saying in a BMC statement.

Not too far until the dead-rubber intermediate sprint at Cahors - 10km to be precise. The gap for the 16-man group is 3:30 so it's rather stable.

Yesterday's finale - in which Chris Froome largely paced yellow jersey Brad Wiggins up the final climb - sparked this tweet from Jonathan Vaughters, Wiggins's former DS at Garmin: "Would have been better for Froome to just drop Wiggo by 20 seconds or whatever and settle it in the time trial. That was just humiliation." Our blogger Blazin' Saddles discusses the special alliance between Froome and Wiggins in his latest blog.

The average speed for the second hour of racing was 44.8km/h. The rest of the stage is rather rolling after a largely flat start. We have three more minor category climbs too.

Some interesting stats: this is Kukiya Arashiro's fifth break of the Tour. Rui Costa has now been on the attack for the past four stages in succession.

So far 45 riders have withdrawn from the race since the start in Liege almost three weeks ago. Just four teams have a full quota of riders: Liquigas, BMC, Lotto and Saxo Bank-Tinkoff.

Seven of this 16-man group are previous stage winners on the Tour: Popovych (RNT), Millar (GRS), Boasson Hagen (SKY), Vanendert (LTB), Costa (MOV), Vinokourov (AST) and Kroon (STB). They have passed through the feeding zone with a lead of 3:15.

Fascinating group it has to be said. Will GreenEdge get a maiden Tour win through Albasini? Will Vinokourov be victorious as he bids farewell to professional cycling? Perhaps Millar can make it two? Eddie Boasson Hagen has seen his personal ambitions put aside these past few weeks - can he now take a stage win that he deserves for all the work he's done for Wiggins? What about ever-attacking Saxo Bank - they have two riders in the break...

Sauj-Sojasun tired their best to chase down the leading group - the French team missed a trick and have no rider in that 16-man group. But now normal service has resumed as Team Sky come to the front to maintain the tempo. The break is 2:45 ahead now. It looks like this one will grow and stick.

CRASH: Janez Brajkovic of Astana hits the deck. He is okay and being paced back into the bunch by his team-mates.

Finally, it looks like we have the break of the day: the gap grows to two minutes. And with riders from Sky and Lotto involved, there may not perhaps be much of an effort from within the peloton to reel in the break - unless the Liquigas team of Peter Sagan fancy setting up their man for a fourth. Rui Costa is the best-placed rider in GC - almost half an hour down on Wiggins.

We now have 16 riders in the lead - and it's quite an illustrious break: Rui Costa (Movistar), Jelle Vanendert (Lotto), Alex Vinokourov (Astana), Edvald Boasson Hagen (Sky), Jeremy Roy (FDJ), Yaroslav Popovych (RadioShack), Yukiya Arashiro (Europcar), Adam Hansen (Lotto Belisol), David Millar (Garmin), Michael Albasini (GreenEdge), Luca Paolini (Katusha), Kris Boeckmans (Vacansoleil), Nick Nuyens, Karsten Kroon (both Saxo Bank), Patrick Gretsch (Argos Shimano), Julien Fouchard (Cofidis).

Nick Nuyens picks up two points over the top of the climb ahead of Yukiya Arashiro. Qunziato was dropped on the climb and there's a large chase group including the likes of Vino and David Millar.

The nine riders are: Quinziato (BMC), Arashiro (EUC), Fouchard (COF), Hansen (LTB), Paolini (KAT), Roy (FDJ), Nuyens (STB), Albasini (OGE) and Gretsch (ARG). A tenth rider, Alexandre Vinokourov of Astana, is trying to bridge the gap.

We're just onto the Cat.3 Côte de Saint-Georges with nine riders now clear. Names have yet to be confirmed. It's a short one-kilometre climb - but has an average gradient of 10.3%.

Another six riders have pinged off the front ahead of the first climb of the day - their names coming up once confirmed on race radio.

FDJ-BigMat are on the front of the bunch trying to initiate a break. They already have two stage wins to their name thanks to Thibaut Pinot and Pierrick Fedrigo. Can they make it three?

We're back together as one after the five remaining escapees are reeled in. The average speed for the first hour today was a fast 48.2km/h.

The break is down to five after Fofonov dropped his chain and needed a mechanical. The gap is just 10 seconds so the peloton will soon be back together as one before the inevitable wave of counter attacks.

American Tejay van Garderen moved up to fifth place yesterday in the GC. He did lose a little time to Thibalt Pinot in the white jersey standings - although given his superior ITT abilities, he should easily ride into Paris as the best-placed young rider. The gap is 3:16 between BMC's van Garderen and FDJ's Pinot.