Welcome to stage five of the Tour de France - a 196.5km jaunt through the Picardy region from Rouen to St Quentin that will no doubt end in a mass bunch sprint (not to mention the odd pile-up).

In the youth standings, Tejay Van Garderen (BMC) is still one second ahead of Sky's Edvald Boasson Hagen, with Rein Taaramae (Cofidis) in third, 12 seconds back. And finally, in our standings round-up, Team Sky are still the best overall team and as such wear those notorious yellow helmets.

Marcel Kittel is the fourth rider to pull out of the 2012 Tour following Kanstantin Siutsou (Team Sky), Jose Joaquin Rojas (Movistar) and Maarten Tjallingii (Rabobank).

A reminder of the four leaders: Mathieu Ladagnous (FDJ-BigMat), Pablo Urtasun (Euskaltel), Jan Ghyselinck (Cofidis) and Julien Simon (Saur-Sojasun). They have 4:45 on the peloton after breaking away inside the first two kilometres.

That's a big blow for the 24-year-old German. He had high hopes for his debut Tour, but hasn't been able to contest the sprints because of illness. Every day has been a challenge just to stay in the race - and now he'll have to refocus and come back for the Vuelta, via the Olympics. in Kittel's absence, Argos Shimano has been performing well with Tom Veelers, the Dutchman with two top fives to his name so far.

WITHDRAWAL: German youngster Marcel Kittel has pulled out of the race. The Argos-Shimano sprinter has been suffering from a stomach bug since the beginning of his debut Tour and has decided to call it quits.

This is Fabian Cancellara's 26th day in yellow in total. The Swiss now occupies the 12th rank in the history of the Tour. Back to today's race, and the average speed for the first hour was 39.6kmh.

As usual, Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) and Luis Leon Sanchez (Rabobank) are on the back of the peloton. The German and Spaniard both fell heavily in stage one and have been a constant fixture off the back ever since. The gap of the four leaders is up to 5:30.

It's a mixture of clouds and sun at the moment but it has just started to rain at the finish in Saint Quentin, where showers are expected for the stage finale.

Today's stage is the only stage in the whole race without any categorised climbs so there will be no change in the polka dot jersey. Denmark's Michael Morkov (Saxo Bank) won the king of the mountains jersey on the first road stage on Sunday and has kept it ever since. Morkov has nine points, with three riders on two points.

Lotto Belisol have come to the front to control the pace in the peloton. They'll be keen to lead out their man Greipel for a second win today after yesterday's heroics. "A victory in the Tour cannot be compared to anything," Greipel said yesterday. "We're here with a real group of friends and then it's easier to set good performances, to fight for each other. It's an incredible team performance, a reward for the whole team for the amount of hard work."

In the battle for the green jersey, Matt Goss moved up to second place yesterday after consistent finishes in the intermediate and final sprints. Double sage winner Peter Sagan still leads on 147 points, with the Australian in second on 92 and Andre Greipel on 87.

The four leaders combine well to extend their gap to 4:45 over the peloton. Today it's all about lavander and sunflowers as the peloton canters through the flat Picardy region north of Paris.

Of the four leaders, only one has already been involved in a break in this year's Tour: the Spaniard Pablo Urtasun, who attacked in the opening stage and was part of a six-man leading group.

Acting in favour for today's break is the fact that the best-placed rider in the GC is Ladagnous, who is a large 8:04 down on Cancellara in the GC. Yesterday, Japan's Arashiro was too much of a threat at 2:03 down, but with some weary limbs out there, and with RadioShack no doubt taking a day off, perhaps this break could go the distance?

The four leaders have one minute on the bunch. For the first time in this year's race, there is no Europcar rider in the break. The French minnows had breakaway riders in each of the race's first four stages in Yohann Gene, Christophe Kern, Gio Bernaudeau and Yukiya Arashiro.

ATTACK: Four riders break clear of the bunch after just a couple of kilometres of riding. Frenchman Mathieu Ladagnous (Fra-FDJ) is the first rider to have a pop, and he's followed by Pablo Urtasun (Esp-EUS), Jan Ghyselinck (Bel-COF) and Julien Simon (Fra-SAU).

Fabian Cancellara was almost brought down in the big crash yesterday but lived to fight another day in yellow. The Swiss is still seven seconds clear of Bradley Wiggins and Sylvain Chavanel in the GC.

Under sun and temperatures in the early 20s, the 195 riders get this fifth stage under way. No overnight withdrawals to report - despite that nasty pile-up towards the end of yesterday's stage.

But a massive high-speed accident just inside the final 3km brought down a large amount of riders - including stage two winner Cavendish and his Sky team-mate Bernard Eisel. Both Sky riders crossed the line bloodied and bruised five minutes after Greipel took the win. "It looked pretty serious but he's okay," said Team Sky directeur sportif Sean Yates when asked about Cavendish. "He's cut up and bruised but should be okay."

Yesterday, Andre Greipel won stage four of the Tour de France in Rouen after a huge pile-up ended the chances of world champion Mark Cavendish. The German rider from Lotto Belisol coasted to a fine bunch sprint win ahead of Italian Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre) and Dutchman Tom Veelers (Argos-Shimano) at the conclusion of the 214.5km stage in Normandy.