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.

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.

The peloton briefly split in two because of the speed of the chase. It's back together now, and the six leaders have just 10 seconds. This is very much like stage 15 when the initial Millar group never got more than a minute, and then a second Fedrigo group formed - with the Frenchman taking the win in Pau.

This break looks to be coming back. Rein Taaramae tries his luck to bridge the gap, but the Cofidis rider is reeled in quickly. The gap is down to just 20 seconds now.

The break is not increasing its lead, which stays around the 40-second mark. It's very tough for the six riders out there. This is the sixth break of the Tour that has involved Morkov - quite impressive.

Fofonov is the best-placed rider of these six in the GC - a huge one hour and 56 minutes down on Bradley Wiggins, so no danger here. They have 45 seconds on the peloton, which is being led by Omega Pharma-Quick Step, one of the teams to have missed a trick this morning.

BREAK: Six riders are out in front following an initial attack from Dmitriy Fofonov (Astana). The Kazakh is joined by Ruben Perez (EUS), Julien Simon (SAU), Cedric Pineau (FDJ), Michael Morkov (STB) and Matthieu Sprick (ARG).

Astana are particularly active at the start of this stage but so far to no avail. The pace is fast and no break has yet formed.

Should today's stage conclude with a bunch sprint it would not be for green jersey points: Slovak youngster Peter Sagan, riding his debut Tour, has an unassailable 102-point lead over Andre Greipel after picking up three wins and multiple high finishes.

Still no attacks from the peloton, tired after those two stages in the Pyrenees. It will be interesting to see if it comes down to a bunch sprint today, or if a group is allowed clear. There are so many teams without a win so far: AG2R, Cofidis, Saur-Sojasun, BMC, Euskaltel, Lampre, Saxo Bank-Tinkoff, Astana, Vacansoleil-DCM, Katusha, Omega Pharma-Quick Step, Orica-GreenEdge and Argos-Shimano...

While there are four climbs today - and two Cat.4 climbs on Sunday on the way into Paris - there are not enough points left to see Thomas Voeckler lose the polka dot jersey. The French Europcar rider crossed seven climbs in the Pyrenees in pole position to rise about Astana's Frederik Kessiakoff, over whom he has an unassailable 11-point lead.

Argos-Shimano - one of the many teams without a win so far - are particularly active at the start of this stage, which is a rolling affair with four minor climbs.

They're off! After a police escort and a flyover from a Airbus A380 (the Airbus factory is located in the town of Blagnac), the remaining 153 riders get this stage under way.

The temperature is 22 degrees celsius as the peloton rolls through the neutral zone at Blagnac, near Toulouse's airport. No overnight withdrawals to report. Chris Anker Sorensen (Saxo Bank) continues despite an operation and skin graft on his hand yesterday. The Dane crashed heavily and tore a finger open to the bone.

Brad Wiggins still holds a lead of two minutes and five seconds on GC over Sky team-mate Chris Froome, who paced the maillot jaune up the final climb yesterday and laid aside his own ambitions for the stage victory. Third-placed Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas) lost 18 seconds on the final climb and is now 2:41 behind Wiggins.

Yesterday, Bradley Wiggins moved a step closer to becoming the first Briton to win the Tour de France as Alejandro Valverde won the final mountain stage in Peyragudes. Wiggins finished third, 19 seconds behind the Movistar rider, and on the wheel of his Sky team-mate Chris Froome. Valverde’s win was his first in the Tour following a two-year ban for doping and a fifth victory of his comeback season.