Hello and welcome to live coverage of stage 20 of the Tour de France - the all-important short and sharp 110.5km ride from Modane to Alpe d'Huez. The riders tackle two monster climbs - the Croix de Fer and the famous 21 hairpin bends of Alpe d'Huez, the Dutch Mountain.

The lead of the four escapees is down to just 4:05 now on this, the penultimate climb of the 102nd edition of the Tour.

It's the bandaged figure of Peraud who is still driving the pace for Ag2R-La Mondiale. The French veteran was runner-up last year but is 60th at the moment, well over two hours down on Chris Froome. In fact none of the riders from last year's podium are back there again, with third place Thibaut Pinot in 16th at 40:40. Nibali, of course, could make it up there at the expense of Valverde should things go his well on Alpe d'Huez.

Earlier, FDJ's Geniez punctured but he managed to fight back on to the leaders after a rear wheel change.

And the three chasers have been caught, so it's just the initial four escapees out now. They are: Lars Bak (Lotto-Soudal), Nicolas Edet (Cofidis), Alexandre Geniez (FDJ) and Ramunas Navardauskas (Cannondale-Garmin)

Plaza drives the pace on a small downhill segment halfway up this climb. Behind him you can see his two fellow escapees, Majka and Anacona, but also the Ag2R-La Mondiale-led peloton, which is closing in.

The four leaders have 5:20 over the three chasers, who themselves only have 12 seconds over the pack. Many riders have been shelled out the back of the peloton already.

History: Christophe Riblon's win in 2013 means the only former winners on Alpe d'Huez in the race are him and fellow Frenchman Pierre Rolland, winner in 2011.

Barguil has taken his foot off the gas and been rejoined by the peloton. The gap is very small between the chasers and the pack. Plaza has been joined by Majka and Anacona, but the others have all been caught by the Ag2R-La Mondiale train.

Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo) and Dylan van Baarle (Cannondale) are also in this chase group - but it's Plaza who steps on the pedals to force a selection.

The heavily bandaged Jean-Christophe Peraud sets the tempo for Ag2R-La Mondiale. They need their man Bardet to get as many KOM points as possible over the Croix de Fer otherwise he'll struggle to stay out ahead of Froome in the polka dot jersey standings.

Cyril Gautier of Europcar also tried to bridge the gap but he's been swept up alongside Feillu by the pack, which is now being led by the An2R-La Mondiale team of Romain Bardet. Their rider Christophe Riblon was the last rider to win atop Alpe d'Huez in 2013.

There's another group trying to come across to the Majka group with the likes of Romain Sicard (Europcar) and Bob Jungels (Trek) in it. The yellow jersey pack still trails the leading quartet by 7:25.

Rafal Majka (Tinkoff), Winner Anacona (Movistar) and Bartosz Huzarski (Bora-Argon 18) have joined Barguil and Grivko to form a select chase group. Feillu is no longer there.

Frenchmen Brice Feillu (Lampre) and Warren Barguil (Giant-Alpecin) have also bounded clear of the Sky-led pack in pursuit of Grivko and Plaza. Barguil was in the top ten until fading in the last few days. He's now 14th at 27 minutes and realistically cannot get higher than 13th today because of the huge time gaps.

ATTACK: Stage 17 winner in Gap, Ruben Plaza of Lampre-Merida has danced clear of the peloton. He's provoked a reaction from Astana's Andrey Grivko.

Stage 20 in a nutshell: Because of a landslide, the shortest road stage of the race outside Paris no longer takes the peloton up the Col du Telegraph and Col du Galibier, but adds a second ascent of the Croix de Fer ahead of the showpiece finale on the Dutch Mountain.

Navardauskas leads the break on the nursery slopes of this climb. They have 7:50 over the peloton.

The four leaders are onto the Cat HC Col de la Croix de Fer (29 Km at 5.2%). They are tackling it from the opposite side as yesterday meaning once they pass the turning to La Toussuire they will be riding up the road they descended yesterday - the one where Nibali led Rolland down, and Bardet had a mechanical issue with his derailleur.

Team Sky have come to the front to control the tempo. It's a big day for them as they bid to win their third Tour de France in four years. They have all their riders except British national champion Peter Kennaugh, who withdrew earlier last week.

The gap is up to five minutes for the leaders - but they will need every second they can get. That said, Geniez is not a bad climber and so you never know...

There are 75 KOM points available today - 25 for each climb and another 25 as a bonus for the winner. It's going to be a big ask for Bardet because you sense Froome will want to win this one and seal up the Tour in style.