Hello and welcome to live coverage of stage 5 of the Tour de France - a flat and exposed 189.5km ride through the battlefields of the Somme from Arras to Amiens.

Jack Bauer (Cannondale-Garmin) has withdrawn from the race. He crashed in stage three, yesterday and today - enough is enough. Too bad for the New Zealander, who came so close to winning a stage last year.

That said, Matthews is at the back of the last sector of the peloton - which has split up into numerous groups as the road heads on a sweeping downhill. BMC are not driving the pace - and the gaps are growing...

Chapeau, Michael Matthews: the bandaged and bruised Orica-GreenEdge rider is back with the pack.

Michael Matthews is struggling off the back of the peloton. He's grimacing as he negotiates an uphill drag - the Australian clearly suffering from those injuries sustained in the pile-up that marred stage three.

It's all back together after those splits. No rain for the time being but the roads are still a bit "slidey" to use Sean Kelly vernacular.

The split after the intermediate sprint apparently came when Mick Rogers (Tinkoff-Saxo) was involved in a small spill.

Talking of food... today's plat du jour: The Picardy region in France is famous for its chitterlings - the small intestines of a pig, which the locals make into andouillette sausage. To help get rid of the flavour have a swig of Pelforth. Brewed in the suburbs of nearby Lille, Pelforth is an iconic French brown ale that packs a punch far bigger than the one that felled Eddy Merckx on the Puy de Dome climb during the 1975 Tour. Its name comes from the beer's logo - a pelican - and the French word for strong - fort. The H was added to give it an English feel. If 6.5% is too much, then try the local, sweet Picardy rhubarb juice - less alcohol content than a very weak American fizzy lager.

The peloton has split a little as it exits the feedzone. Etixx-QuickStep have upped the tempo with yellow jersey Tony Martin in the wheel of world champion Michal Kwiatkowski.

A second peloton - led by half a dozen Cannondale-Garmin riders - rejoin the main pack. They must have lost touch after things got feisty during that intermediate sprint. Quintana, it's worth addign, is safely back in the pack after those bike changes.

It's all over for Pierre-Luc Perichon: the 27-year-old Bretagne-Seche Environnement (BSE) rider was out from the 2km mark after joining Nicolas Edet. But when Edet dropped back following that crash involving his Cofidis team-mate Nacer Bouhanni, Perichon was always up against it.

Andre Greipel beats fellow German John Degenkolb in the intermediate sprint, with Mark Cavendish third and Peter Sagan fourth at Rancourt. That was a well-contested affair, which bodes well for the finale in Amiens. Greipel will increase his lead by two points over Degenkolb there. Pierre-Luc Perichon, it's worth adding, crossed the line a bit earlier to take the maximum 20 points.

Believe it or not: Amiens cathedral is the tallest and largest 13th century Gothic church of its kind in France, and the town hosts the largest Christmas market in northern France.

Double bike change for Nairo Quintana, who multitasks by taking a call of nature on the side of the road while his Movistar mechanics sort out his steed. The Colombian punctures the first time, then needed a bike more in sync with his small size the second time round.

Perichon has just 45 seconds now so may well be caught ahead of the intermediate sprint.

There's a split in the peloton after that crash as the rain starts to pour once again. As for Bryan Coquard - he has two Europcar team-mates with him and they're trying to fight back on. They're over a minute off the pace at the moment...

CRASH: A raft of riders go down in the peloton - including that man Bryan Coquard once again. The Europcar sprinter is having a shocker today. Katusha's Tiago Machado looks to be in a bit of pain but otherwise everyone is back on their way fairly swiftly.

History: This will be the 10th finish in Amiens but the first since 1999 when Mario Cipollini won. Six years earlier, Johan Bruneel won in Amiens. As for Arras, it features as a start town for the second successive year.

The gap is back up to 1:50 for Perichon. The sun is out but grey clouds loom on the horizon. The roads are dry for the moment, though, which will be welcome after all those crashes earlier on in the stage.

The rain capes are going on and off pretty consistently today. At the moment it's dry. Pierre-Luc Perichon is about 15km away from the intermediate sprint at Rancourt.

Lone leader Perichon still has 1:20 on the pack which is riding very gingerly after those earlier crashes. If you're just joining us, the big news is that French sprinter Nacer Bouhanni (Codifis) is out of the race with a suspected broken wrist after a heavy fall shortly after the start of today's 189.5km stage through the battlefields of the Somme.

CRASH: Bryan Coquard goes down on a slippery corner. Europcar team-mate Thomas Voeckler stops to help out the sprinter, who looked to be wincing in pain before he got back on his bike. He'll struggle to get back on ahead of the intermediate sprint...